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A UTHOR : 


WENLEY,  ROBERT  M. 


TITLE: 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 

GEORGE  SYLVESTER 

PLA  CE: 

NEW  YORK 


DA  IE: 


1917 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


Master  Negative  # 


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191I-i832 


Wenley,  Robert  Mark,  1861-1929. 

The  life  and  work  of  George  Sylvester  Morris;  a  chapter 
in  the  history  of  American  thought  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
by  R.  M.  Wenley.  New  York,  The  Macmillan  company; 
London,  Macmillan  &  company,  limited,  1917. 

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''Writings  of  G.  S.  Morris" :  p.  xl-xv. 


1.  Morris,  George  Sylvester,  1840-1889. 


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rHIS  volume  is  published  by  authority  of 
the  Executive  Board  of  the  Graduate 
School  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  A  list 
of  other  volumes  thus  far  published  or  ar- 
ranged for  is  given  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

NEW   YORK  BOSTON  CHICAGO 

ATLANTA  SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN    &  CO..  Limited 

LONDON      BOMBAY       CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE   MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


"^-urA 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK 


OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN 
THOUGHT  IN  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY 


BY 

R.  M.  WENLEY 


Neb  gork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

London:  Macmillan  &  Company,  Limited 

1917 

All  rights  reserved 


r- 


4. 


Copyright.  1917 

By  R.  M.  WEXLEY 

Printed  from  typ>e,  June,  1917 


PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTING  COMPANY 

LANCASTER,  HA. 


PREFACE 

Whatever  be  the  ease  with  the  older  foundations  of 
New  England  and  the  East,  the  State  Universities, 
now  entering  upon  their  third  generation,  have  not  yet 
accustomed  themselves  to  pietas.  Nay,  the  tendency 
towards  it  is  weaker  now,  perhaps,  than  it  was  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Expansion  and  transformation  have 
raised  so  many  practical  problems  of  urgent  concern 
that  even  significant  persons  come  and  go  like  players 
in  a  booth,  as  Plutarch  said  of  the  hapless  puppets  who 
*  ruled'  after  Nero.  The  worth  and  work  of  men  of 
mark  are  taken  for  granted.  Michigan,  particularly 
when  her  age,  position  and  humane  spirit  are  considered, 
has  been  strangely  neglectful  of  her  greatest  servants— 
and  of  herself.  A  life  of  Tappan,  her  real  founder, 
remains  to  be  written.  It  is  to  be  deplored  that  bio- 
graphies of  Frieze,  of  Watson,  of  Olney,  of  Hinsdale,  to 
name  no  others,  fail  us,  For,  as  Dr.  Angell  says,  they, 
more  than  any  one  except  Tappan,  have  built  their 
lives  into  the  University.*  W^here  they  sowed,  w^e  reap; 
we  have  literally  entered  into  their  labors.  The  history 
of  the  University — the  veritable  tale  of  her  inner  ways- 
exists  only  for  the  day  of  small  things.  My  first  prede- 
cessor, Andrew  Ten  Brook,t  has  furnished  an  account 
till  the  close  of  the  Haven  administration  ;t  and  Haven 

*  Cf.  The  Reminiscences  of  James  Burrill  Angell,  pp.  228  f. 

fBorn  1814;  died  1899;  Professor  of  Moral  and  Intellectual  Philoso- 
phy, 1844-51 ;  University  Librarian,  1864-77. 

X  Cf.  American  State  Universities.  Their  Origin  and  Progress: 
a  History  of  Congressional  Land-Grants;  a  Particular  Account  of  the 
Rise  and  Development  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  Hints  toward 
the  Future  of  the  American  University  Systeyn  (Cincinnati,  1875). 

V 


VI 


PREFACE 


PREFACE 


Vll 


resigned  in  1869!     Although  this  happens  to  be  a  class- 
ical contribution,  so  little  are  we  interested  in  our  past 
that  it  has  lacked  due  appreciation,  stands  dusty  oi^ 
our  shelves,  and  Ten  Brook  is  an  empty  name  to  the 
present  Michigan  man.* 

In  these  circumstances,  I  have  deemed  it  a  privilege 
to  be  asked  to  attempt  an  interpretation  of  the  life  of 
George  Sylvester  Morris,  whose  connection  with  the 
University  began  just  at  the  close  of  the  period  covered 
by  Ten  Brook's  history,  and  whose  labours  did  so  much  to 
throw  lustre,  not  only  upon  the  Philosophical  Depart- 
ment, but  also  upon  the  College  of  Literature,  Science 
and  the  Arts.  Yet,  for  the  reasons  indicated,  I  at  once 
found  myself  amidst  a  sea  of  troubles.  The  facts 
indispensable  to  an  adequate  biography  had  been  per- 
mitted to  lapse.  To  reassemble  them,  twenty-five  years 
after  Morris  had  entered  into  rest,  I  have  been  com- 
pelled to  take  endless  trouble.  These  difficulties  would 
have  been  mitigated  had  his  Michigan  contemporaries  ' 
discerned  his  strategic  position  in  the  development  of 
American  culture.  Moreover,  at  some  points  I  have  been 
baffled,  despite  all  pains;  for  those  who  could  have  set 
the  situation  in  proper  perspective  from  personal  knowl- 
edge had  passed  away.     Nevertheless,  on  the  whole,  thanks 

*  "The  present  Michigan  man"  who,  perhaps,  needs  to  have  his  memory 
jogged,  may  learn  from  figures,  as  from  nothing  else,  how  completely 
Ten  Brook's  book  confines  itself  to  "the  day  of  small  things."  In  1869 
the  number  of  students  was  1112,  of  the  Faculty,  31;  the  total  expend- 
iture, S74,o00 — little  more  than  the  Library  alone  costs  now.  Writing 
in  18S8,  Morris  said  to  a  Swiss  friend;  "Our  University  is  very  prosperous. 
The  attendance  here  is  larger  than  at  any  other  American  University. 
We  have  over  1800  students."  At  this  time  there  were  1882  students 
and  100  members  of  Faculty;  the  expenditure  was  $225,000.  The  latest 
complete  figures  (1915-16)  are — 7214  students;  527  officers  of  instruction; 
income,  $2,202,860. 


* 


to  the  cooperation  of  Mrs.  and  Miss  Morris,  I  have  met 
with  more  success  than  seemed  possible  at  the  first  blush. 
But,  I  would  warn  others,  that  efTorts  should  be  made  to 
preserve  even  details  connected  with  the  activities  of 
prominent  or  influential  men.    These  may  very  well 
appear  trivial  at  the  moment.     Yet,  just  such  trivial 
things  serve  to  offer  important  clues  after  years  have 
elapsed,  for,  as  is  obvious,  they  form  the  links  of  every 
fife.     How  serious  the  difficulties,  due  to  the  lapse  of 
evidence,  have  been,  may  be  gathered  from  those  facts. 
I  began  my  researches  in  the  summer  of  1910.     I  was 
able  to  begin  to  write  only  in  October,  1913,  and  to 
finish  the  first  draft  of  the  Introduction  and  Chapters 
I.-VIII.  in  January,  1915.     Delays  caused  by  obscure 
episodes    were    constant.     Since    the    first    draft    was 
finished,   I   have   sought  to  elucidate   incidents  which 
remained  dark,  despite  every  care.     For  example,  only 
late  in  1915  was  I  enabled  to  identify  Mr.  Larrowe 
unequivocally.     Hundreds    of    letters    were    necessary, 
and  many,  addressed  at  a  venture   to  those  who  had 
known  Morris,  either  failed  to  reach  their  destination 
or  had  been  sent  to  dead  men. 

Although  Morris  died  in  his  prime  and,  thanks  to  an 
unusual  combination  of  circumstances,  just  as  he  was 
beginning  to  achieve  a  final  standpoint,  his  rare  per- 
sonality stamped  itself  upon  this  University.  Moreover, 
thanks  to  his  complete  equipment  in  scholarship,  he 
punctuated  an  epoch  in  philosophical  education  at  our 
institutions  of  the  higher  learning.  What  is  most 
significant,  perhaps,  his  intellectual  history,  despite  its 
sudden  end,  epitomises  that  of  many  minds  in  his  day, 
because  it  embodies  a  representative  human  experience 
peculiar  to  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 


vm 


PREFACE 


particularly  in  the  English-speaking  world.  At  grave 
disadvantages  in  certain  respects,  he  yet  takes  his  place 
with  James  Hutchison  Stirling,  John  Caird,  Edward 
Caird,  Thomas  Hill  Green,  William  Wallace,  Robert 
Adamson,  William  T.  Harris,  and  C.  C.  Everett,  the 
idealists  of  the  first  generation,  who  deflected  the  thought 
characteristic  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
and  brought  it  into  the  main  stream  of  post-Kantian 
philosophy.  He  attained  this  difficult  fellowship  late 
in  his  career,  and  only  after  numerous  mental  trials, 
which  beset  him  through  one  half  of  his  awakened  years. 
This  spiritual  drama  it  is  that  lends  present,  possibly 
permanent,  interest  to  the  man.  At  all  events,  I  do 
not  know  another  figure  who  typifies  so  fully  the  struggles 
through  which  we  have  been  enabled  to  enter  upon  a 
larger  outlook. 

I  have  tried  to  acknowledge  my  many  obligations  in 
the  text.  But  I  should  be  churlish  indeed  were  I  not 
to  make  special  mention  of  Mrs.  Cone,  Morris's  favorite 
niece,  who  has  enabled  me  to  reconstruct  the  earlier 
life;  and  of  Dr.  James  B.  Angell,  with  whom  I  spent 
many  hours,  made  precious  by  his  presence,  in  convers- 
ation about  the  University  of  Michigan  as  it  was 
during  the  eighteen  years  when  his  Presidency  ran 
parallel  with  Morris's  Professorships.  His  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  influential  men,  and  of  the  academic 
problems,  suffused  as  it  was  by  the  wisdom  of  unique 
experience  since,  controlled  my  interpretation  of  the 
evidence  at  every  point.  He  has  the  credit  for  such 
new  light  as  Morris's  career  undoubtedly  casts  upon 
the  internal  hist  or  v  of  the  Universitv  between  1870  and 

1890. 

R.  M.  Wenley. 


CONTEXTS 

Page 

Writings  of  G.  S.  Morris xi 

Introductory:     The  Morris  Line 1 

Chapter         I.     The  New  England  Home 11 

Chapter       H.    School  and  College  (1854-61) 34 

Chapter      HI.     Early  Manhood.     Royalton.     The 

Civil  War.     Dartmouth  College 
Once  More   (1861-64) 62 

Chapter      IV.     Union       Theological       Seminary. 

Europe.     Transition    (1864-70)     88 

Chapter       V.     Michigan:  The  First  Period.     The 

Johns  Hopkins  Episode  (1870-81)  122 

Chapter     VI.     Withdrawal  from  Johns  Hopkins. 

Michigan:   The   Second   Period 
(1881-89) '. 144 

Chapter    VII.     Intellectual  History.     Origins  and 

Transition 177 

Chapter  VIII.     Intellectual    History.     The    Final 

Stage 239 

Chapter     IX.    The  Man  and  The  Teacher 296 

Index 327 


IX 


WRITINGS  OF  G.  S.  MORRIS 

(During  his  service  at  the  front  in  the  Civil  War, 
Morris  acted  as  correspondent  of  one  of  the  Vermont 
newspapers,  to  which  he  contributed  articles.  De- 
spite diligent  search,  it  has  been  impossible  to  recover 
these  writings.) 

1867 

Hodgson  on  Time  and  Space.      The  American  Presbyterian 
and  Theological  Review  (New  Series),  Vol.  V.,  pp.  217-38. 

1869 
Translation  of  ''The  Theosophy  of  Franz  Baader,"  by  Dr. 
Julius    Hamberger.     The    American    Presbyterian    Review 
(New  Series),  Vol.  I.,  pp.  171-85. 

1871 
Translation  of  "A  History  of  Philosophy  from  Thales  to  the 
Present    Time,"    by    Dr.    Friedrich    Ueberweg.     Vol.    L, 
"History   of   the   Ancient   and    Mediaeval    Philosophy." 
New  York;  Charles  Scribner  and  Company. 

1872 

Translation    of    Ueberweg's    ''History,"    Vol.    I.     London; 

Hodder  and  Stoughton. 
Admission  to  the  University.     The  Preparation  in  French. 

The  Michigan  Teacher,  Vol.  VII.,pp.  267-71. 

1873 
Translation  of  "A  History  of  Philosophy  from  Thales  to  the 
Present   Time,"   by   Dr.   Friedrich   Ueberweg.     Vol.   II., 
"History  of  Modern  Philosophy."     New  York;  Charles 
Scribner  and  Company. 

Translation   of   Ueberweg's   "History,"    Vol.    II.     London; 

Hodder  and  Stoughton. 
A  Circular  to  Teachers  of  French  in  the  Preparatory  Schools 

(Ann  Arbor). 

xi 


xii  WRITINGS  OF  G.  S.  MORRIS 

1874 

Notes  on  '*A  New  Treatise  on  French  Verbs,"  by  Alfred 
Hennequin.  The  Michigan  Teacher,  Vol.  IX.,  pp.  224-5, 
263-4. 

Vera  on  Trendelenburg.  The  Journal  of  Speculative  Philoso- 
phy, Vol.  VIIL,  pp.  92-4. 

Friedrich  Adolf  Trendelenburg.  The  New  Englander,  Vol. 
XXXIIL,  pp.  287-336. 

1875 

Translation  of  Ueberweg's  ''History."  2  vols.  Second 
Edition.     London:  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 

The  Final  Cause  as  Principle  of  Cognition  in  Nature.  8vo, 
pp.  31.  London;  Robert  Hardwicke.  Reprinted  from 
the  Journal  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Victoria  Institute,  or 
Philosophical  Society  of  Great  Britain.  (This  paper  was 
read,  on  behalf  of  Morris,  by  Prebendary  Rowe,  at  an 
Ordinary  Meeting  of  the  Institute,  held  on  18th  May, 
1874.     It  appears  in  Vol.  IX.  of  the  Journal,  pp.  176-204). 

1876 

Translation  of  Ueberweg's  ''History."  2  vols.  New  Ed- 
ition.    New  York;  Charles  Scribner  and  Company. 

The  Theory  of  Unconscious  IntelHgence  as  Opposed  to 
Theism;  being  a  Paper  Read  before  the  Victoria  Institute, 
or  Philosophical  Society  of  Great  Britain.  8vo,  pp.  47, 
London:  Hardwicke  and  Bogue.  (This  paper  was  read, 
on  behalf  of  Morris,  by  the  Rev.  T.  M.  Gorman,  at  an 
Ordinary  Meeting  of  the  Institute,  held  on  19th  June, 
1876.     It  appears  in  Vol.  XL  of  the  Journal,  pp.  247-91.) 

The  Philosophy  of  Art.  The  Journal  of  Speculative  Philoso- 
phy, Vol.  X.,  pp.  1-16. 

Review  of  " Philosophy  of  Trinitarian  Doctrine:  a  Contrib- 
ution to  Theological  Progress  and  Reform,"  by  Rev. 
A.  G.  Pease.     Ihid.,  pp.  111-12. 

The  Immortality  of  the  Human  Soul.  A  University  Address. 
The  Bibliotheca  Sacra  (Andover),  Vol.  XXXIIL,  pp. 
695-715. 


WRITINGS  OF  G.  S.  MORRIS 


Xlll 


1877 

Spinoza — a  Summary  Account  of  His  Life  and  Teaching. 
The  Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,  Vol.  XL,  pp. 
278-99. 

1878 

The  Johns  Hopkins  University.  The  Michigan  Chronicle, 
Vol.  IX.,  p    180. 

1879 

Translation  of  Ueberweg's  "History."  Vol.  I.  Third 
Edition.     London:  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 

Philosophy  at  Johns  Hopkins  University.  The  Journal  of 
Speculative  Philosophy,  Vol.  XIIL,  pp.  398-9. 

^  1880 

Translation  of  Ueberweg's  "History."  Vol.  II.  Third 
Edition.     London:  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 

British  Thought  and  Thinkers:  Introductory  Studies,  Crit- 
ical, Biographical  and  Philosophical.  12mo,  pp.  388. 
Chicago:  S.  C.  Griggs  and  Company. 

A  Report  on  Wundt's  "Logik"  (Bd.  I.  "Erkenntnisslehre") 
[Abstracx.]  Johns  Hopkins  University  Circulars,  No.  7 
p.  84. 

LesHe  Stephen  on  Causation  [printed  by  title  only].  Ibid., 
p.  85. 

1881 

Kant's  Transcendental  Deduction  of  the  Categories.  Read 
at  the  Concord  School  of  Philosophy.  The  Journal  of 
Speculative  Philosophy,  Vol.  XV.,  pp.  253-74. 

German  Philosophy  for  English  Readers.     Ibid.,  pp.  323-24. 

1882 

Kant's  Critique  of  Pure  Reason.  A  Critical  Exposition. 
12mo,  pp.  xvi+272.     Chicago;  S.  C.  Griggs  and  Company. 

EngHsh  Deism  and  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  [Abstract]. 
Johns  Hopkins   University  Circular,  No.   13,  pp.  177-78. 

Philosophy  and  its  Specific  Problems.  The  Princeton  Review 
(New  Series),  Vol.  IX.,  pp.  208-52. 


xiv  WRITINGS  OF  G.  S.  MORRIS 

Philosophy    at    Johns    Hopkins    University    [Program 
The  Journal  of  Speculative    Philosophy,  Vol.   XV  i.,   pp. 

45-51.  ^  „    . 

Add  to  Virtue  Knowledge  [Abstract].  The  Monthly  Bulletin 
(Ann  Arbor),  Vol.  IIL,  No.  8,  pp.  1-2. 

1883 

The  Fundamental  Conceptions  of  University  and  Philosophy 
[Abstract].  Johns  Hopkins  University  Circulars,  Vol.  ii., 
No.  21,  p.  54.  ^    , 

Syllabus  of  Eight  Lectures  on  Philosophy  and  Christiamty. 
8vo  pp.  10.     (Baltimore). 

The  same.      The    Journal  of   Speculative    Philosophy,   \ol. 

XVII.,  pp.  215-20. 
Henry  James  [printed  by  title  only].    Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 

versity  Circulars,  Vol.  II.,  No.  21,  p  64. 
The    Philosophical    Conception    of    Life    [Abstract].     Ihid,, 

Vol.  IIL,  No.  27,  pp.  12-13. 
Agnosticism.     Supplement  [American]  to  Encyclopaedia  Brit- 

annica,  Vol.  I. 

Causation.     Ibid. 

Dr.  Cocker's  Philosophical  Attitude.  The  Michigan  Argo- 
naut, Vol.  I.,  pp.  245-47. 

Philosophy  and  Christiamty:  a  Series  ''^  l^f^''' ^'^TI 
in  New  York,  in  1883,  on  the  Ely  Foundation  of  the  Union 
Theological  Seminary.  12mo,  pp.  xiv+315.  New  York. 
Robert  Carter  and  Brothers. 

1884 

Review  of  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris's  "Philosophy  in  Outline" 
[printed  by  title  only].  Johns  Hopkins  University  Cir- 
culars, Vol.  III.,  No.  29,  p.  70. 

Translation  of  Ueberweg's  "History,"  Vol.  I.  Fourth 
Edition.     London:  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 

Conception.  Supplement  [American]  to  Encyclopaedia  Bni- 
annica.  Vol.  II. 

Conceptualism.     Ibid. 

Consciousness.     Ibid. 


WRITINGS  OF  G.  S.  MORRIS 


1885 


XV 


Translation  of  Ueberweg's  ''History,"  Vol.  II.  Fourth 
Edition.     London:  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 

Reports  on  Fred  Kapp's  "Grundriss  einer  Philosophic  der 
Technik'^  and  on  Du  Prel's  ''Philosophic  der  Mystik" 
[printed  by  title  only].  Johns  Hopkins  University  Cir- 
culars, Vol.  IV,  No.  35,  p.  28. 

The  Method  of  Philosophy  [printed  by  title  only].  Ibid., 
No.  38,  p.  66. 

1886 

The  Philosophy  of  the  State  and  of  History.  Pedagogical 
Library  (edited  by  G.  Stanley  Hall).  Vol.  I.  Methods 
of  Teaching  History.  Second  Edition,  pp.  149-66.  Boston.* 
D.  C.  Heath  and  Company. 

Philosophy  at  Michigan  University.  The  Journal  of  Specul- 
ative Philosophy,  Vol.  XX.,  pp.  331-32. 

University  Education.  University  of  Michigan  Philosophical 
Papers.  First  Series,  No.  1,  8vo,  pp.  40.  Ann  Arbor: 
Andrews  and  Witherby. 

1887 

Hegel's  Philosophy  of  the  State  and  of  History.  An  Expos- 
ition. 12mo,  pp.  xiii+306.  Chicago:  S.  C.  Griggs  and 
Company. 

1888 

Review  of  "A  Brief  History  of  Greek  Philosophy,"  by  B.  C. 
Burt.     The  Michigan  Argonaut,  Vol.  VII.,  pp.  67-8. 

1900 

Translation  of  Ueberweg's  "History."  2  vols.  Fifth  Ed- 
ition. London:  Hodder  and  Stoughton. 
Note. — By  an  unfortunate  oversight,  rare  indeed  in  this 
pubhcation,  the  works  of  George  Sylvester  Morris  possessed 
by  the  British  Museum  Library  are  printed  under  the  name 
of  George  Sculthorpe  Morris  in  the  "British  Museum  Cata- 
logue." This  author,  who  appears  to  be  unknown  otherwise, 
wrote  pamphlets  upon  the  transportation  of  convicts  to 
Australia.  The  Museum  authorities  have  been  apprised  of 
the  error,  and  will  see  that  it  is  corrected. 


\ 


INTRODUCTORY 

The  Morris  Line 

Despite  recent  inquiry  and  speculation,  much  remains 
to  do  ere  man  can  penetrate  the  secrets  of  his  intellectual 
and  moral  nature.     If  physiological  ^heredity'  chastise 
our  knowledge  with  whips,  social  'heredity'  chastises  it 
with   scorpions.     Nevertheless,    when   the   group-influ- 
ences, inseparable  from  intellectual  and  moral  achieve- 
ment,^ come  in  question,  it  seems  plain  that  every  notable 
life  "is  built  up  of  an  enormous  number  of  subordinate 
lives,''*  but  of  lives  like-minded,  in  the  sense  that  they 
create  or  maintain  a  normal  standard,  itself  very  com- 
plex, which  the  exceptional  career  serves  to  epitomize. 
However  these  obscure  problems  stand  today,  few  will 
deny  that  the  culture-system  peculiar  to  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies  was  a  type— a  type  dominated  by  a  saving 
sense  of  order  and  thrift  on  earth,  by  a  no  less  saving 
sense  of  grave  responsibility  to  the  fearful  issues  that 
sprang  from  primitive  notions  of  a  covenant  relation 
between  God  and  man.     For,  while  it  is  true  that  the 
first  English  immigrants  entertained  "the  visible  hope 
of  a  great  and  rich  trade"  they  were  possessed  even 
more  by  pictorial  beliefs  concerning  "the  things  unseen 
and  eternal."     In  a  word,  such  were  the  conditions  of 
existence  in  old  East  Anglia  and  in  the  new  Atlantic 
colonies  alike,  that  without  transitive  spiritual  supports 
survival    would    have    been    impossible.     Pilgrim    and 
Puritan  sought  a  far  country  where  they  might  build 
convictions  into  daily  duties,  unhampered  by  Roman 

*  Hereditary  Genius,  Francis  Galton,  p.  349.     (1st  ed.). 
2  1 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


formalism,  untempted  by  the  gay  effronteries  of  Renais- 
sance humanism.     The  challenge  of  a  refractory  land, 
and  of  crafty  foes,  set  the  world  in  their  hearts,  developing 
further  the  practical  steadiness  so  conspicuous  in  the 
English.     But  they  had  suffered  heroically  for  an  idea, 
not  because  it  was  an  idea,  but  because  it  endowed  them 
with  privileges,  and  they  were  bound  to  construct  a 
civil  society  wherein  they  might  rise  to  the  level  of  their 
high  mission  as  the  chosen  people  of  Jehovah.     Hence, 
two    inexpugnable   forces   pulled   the    immigrants   two 
ways,  rendering  their  culture  much  less  simple  than  is 
often  supposed  and,  at  the  same  time,  assuring  persistent 
vitality.     Thus,  economic  diligence,  of  the  earth  earthy, 
yet  the  basis  of  every  civilization,  became  quite  worthy, 
and  found  local  habitation  in  the   industrial  family; 
while,  despite  these  cares  of  this  world,  the  fear  of  the 
Lord  remained  at  once  the  beginning  and  the  completion 

of  wisdom. 

Nay,  more,  the  New  England  conscience  was  com- 
pounded of  two  spiritual  strains  which,  taken  together, 
afford  the  clue  to  several  apparent  contradictions. 

''The  Puritan  differs  from  the  Pilgrim  as  the  Hebrew 
prophet  from  Saint  John.  Abraham,  ready  to  sacrifice 
Isaac  at  the  command  of  God;  Jeremiah,  uttering  his  terrible 
prophecy  of  the  downfall  of  Judaea;  Brutus,  condemning  his 
son  to  death;  Brutus,  slaying  his  friend  for  the  Uberty  of 
Rome;  Aristides,  going  into  exile,  are  his  spiritual  progenitors, 
as  Stonewall  Jackson  was  of  his  spiritual  kindred.  You  will 
find  him  wherever  men  are  sacrificing  life  or  the  dehghts  of 
hfe  on  the  altar  of  Duty.  But  the  Pilgrim  is  of  a  gentler  and 
a  loveUer  nature.  He,  too,  if  Duty  or  Honour  call,  is  ready  for 
the  sacrifice.  But  his  weapon  is  love  and  not  hate.  His 
spirit  is  the  spirit  of  John,  the  beloved  Disciple,  the  spirit  of 
Grace,  Mercy  and  Peace.     His  memory  is  as  sweet  and  fra- 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS  3 

grant  as  the  perfume  of  the  little  flower  which  gave  its  name 
to  the  ship  which  brought  him  over."* 

In  short,  the  Pilgrim  was  a  vessel  of  divine  grace, 
the  Puritan  a  rebel  against  the  corruptions  which,  as  he 
thought,  had  overtaken  even  the  holy  things  of  ^merrie* 
England,  whose  crude,  indecent  and  brutal  rovsterings 
he  abhorred.     For  the  one,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was 
already  within  you— man  is  man,  but  vaster;  for  the 
other,   a  legal  system  was  imperative,   in   order  that 
established,   applicable  rule  might  keep  the  righteous 
people  on  the  narrow  path.      Accordingly,  the  Puritan 
founded  a  new  state;    the  Pilgrim,   on  the  contrary, 
nourished  a  mood  within  this  state— a  mood  destined 
to  come  to  its  own  eventually,  because  it  preserved  an 
open  way  back  to  relations  with  an  ampler  discernment 
of  the  holiness  of  beauty  and  the  righteousness  of  every 
effort  after  truth.     Bunyan  himself  forecast  one  aspect 
of  this  temper. 

"  Christiana,  if  need  was,  could  play  upon  the  viol,  and  her 
daughter  Mercy  upon  the  Lute;  so,  since  they  were  so  merry 
disposed,  she  played  them  a  Lesson,  and  Ready-to-halt 
would  dance.  So  he  took  Despondency's  Daughter  named 
Much-afraid  by  the  hand,  and  to  dancing  they  went  in  the 
Road.  True  he  could  not  dance  without  one  Crutch  in  his 
hand,  but,  I  promise  you,  he  footed  it  well.  Also  the  Girl 
was  to  be  commended,  for  she  answered  the  music  hand- 
somely.'* 

It  is  obvious  that  this  plain,  prudent  living,  and  high, 
if  theological,  thinking,  found  embodiment,  preserved 
and  confirmed  through  eight  generations,  in  the  Morris 
hne.  Temporary  divergencies,  such  as  there  were,  would 
seem  to  have  been  neutralized,  if  not  eliminated,  so 

♦Speech  of  the  late  Senator  Hoar,  of  Massachusetts,  before  the 
New  England  Society  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  22d  December.  1898. 


4  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 

that  the  New  England  type  persisted,  throwing  straight 
from  father  to  son.  In  the  first  known  ancester,  Thomas 
Morris,  the  Nazing  associate  of  the  saintly  John  Eliot, 
the  Pilgrim  temperament  and  outlook  held  gentle, 
persuasive  sway.  Seven  generations  later,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  George  Sylvester  Morris  was  as- 
suredly a  reversion  to  the  Pilgrim  amenity  of  sentiment; 
he  could  have  declared  as  Eliot  did,  towards  the  close 
of  his  long,  beneficent  career : 

"My  understanding  leaves  me,  my  memory  fails  me,  my 
utterance  fails  me;  but,  I  thank  God,  my  charity  holds  out 
still."* 

After  Thomas  Morris,  the  inevitable  cares  of  this 
world,  and  the  equally  inevitable  masterfulness  of  the 
Puritan  bit  deep.  It  is  a  plain  tale.  Godliness  prospers, 
well  yoked  with  contentment  following  upon  hard-won 
competence,  till,  in  the  person  of  Sylvester  Morris,  we 
have  the  express  image  of  the  Philistine — so  his  grand- 
daughter terms  him — in  local  and  national  politics,  a 
man  absorbed  in  the  ideal  and,  recking  neither  the 
means  nor  their  pressure  upon  the  weaker  brethren. 
Nevertheless,  even  his  touch  of  genius  could  not  disin- 
herit his  folk  of  their  rights  in  the  Pilgrim  spirit.  Pil- 
grim tendencies  were  betrayed  by  his  father,  ff  with 
Puritan  exterior.  They  found  expression  in  his  mother, 
and  worked  like  a  leaven  in  the  family  where  he  found 
a  wife.  Finally,  as  if  roused  by  long  denial,  they  domin- 
ated the  person  of  his  distinguished  son,  in  whom 
beauty  of  character  touched  intellectual  power  to  fine 
issues,  and  purity  of  soul  found  fit  utterance  in  "the 
speech  of  angels,'*  as  Carlyle  called  music. 

Two   hundred   and   eleven  years   intervene   between 

*  Cf.  Ten  New  England  Leaders,  Williston  Walker,  p.  171. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS  5 

the   marriage   of   Thomas   Morris   at   Nazing,    Essex. 
England,  and  the  birth  of  George  Sylvester  Morris,  at 
Norwich,  Vermont.     And,  in  these  days  of  rapid  change, 
there  can  be  few  examples  of  an  English  ancestry  so 
pure,  one  so  completely  moulding,  and  moulded  by, 
the  specml  conditions  peculiar  to  the  inwardness  of  the 
raed.tat.ve  passion  that  throbbed  in  the  founders  of 
the  xNew  England  theocracy.    As  the  admirable  book 
wrought  with  pious  care  by  Mr.  Tyler  Seymour  Morris,* 
was  .ssued  .n  a  limited  edition  many  years  ago,  it  is 
not  only  apposite,  but  worth  while,  to  notice  the  fore- 
bears of  George  Sylvester  .Morris  in  some  detail. 

I.  Thomas  Morris  and  Grissie  Hewson  were  married 
24th  August,  1629. 

iv^u/'^T'!  ^1°"^'  ^^^''  '""'  ^^'''^  ''o™  at  Nazing, 
Waltham  Holy  Cross  Abbey,  Essex,  England,  in  August, 

,;,«      ""T      °"^''*  *°  -'^'"^''  ^"S'"^"^  by  his  parents 
in    1636,    and    settled    in    Roxbury,    Mass.    On    20th 

September  1655,  he  married  Grace  Belt  (parentage 
unrecorded,  but  of  an  English  family).  They  were 
members  of  the  church  ministered  to  by  John  Eliot, 
the  blessed  apostle,"  who  baptized  all  their  children 
Mward  Morris  died,  in  September,  1689,  at  Woodstock,' 
Conn.,  whither  he  went  very  shortly  before  his  death. 
He  had  e.ght  children,  four  sons  and  four  daughters; 
01  whom 

III.  Edward  Morris,  the  second  son  and  second  child 
was  born  in  March,  1658-9.  In  May,  1683,  he  married 
Elizabeth  Bowen  of  Roxbury,  Mass.  (daughter  of  Henry 
Bowen,  a  Wehhman,  and  Elizabeth  Johnson,  of  Enqlish 
parentage).    They  removed  to  Woodstock,   Conn.,  in 

cendants  (pnvately  printed,  Chicago,  1894). 


IJ 


6 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


1690-92,  where  'Deacon'  Morris  was  prominent  in 
local  affairs,  and  a  pillar  of  the  church.  Here  Morris 
died  in  1727.  There  were  seven  children,  one  son  and 
six  daughters;  of  whom 

IV.  Edward  MorriSy  the  third  child,  was  born  at 
Woodstock,  9th  November,  1688.  In  January,  1715, 
he  married  Bethiah  Peake  (daughter  of  Jonathan  Peake, 
grandson  of  an  English  Puritan  settler,  and  Hannah 
Leavens,  who  was  also  descended  from  English  Puritan 
immigrants).  Like  his  father,  he  was  a  leader  in  local 
affairs,  till  about  1749,  when  he  removed  to  West  Wood- 
stock, Conn.  Here  he  owned  a  good  deal  of  land,  and 
here  he  died  in  1769.  At  the  time  of  his  marriage  he  was 
twentv-seven,  his  wife  but  seventeen.  There  were  no 
less  than  fourteen  children  of  the  union,  four  sons  and 
ten  daughters;  of  whom 

V.  Isaac  Morris,  the  second  son  and  sixth  child, 
was  born  in  Woodstock,  26th  March,  1725.  In  October, 
1748,  he  married  Sarah  Chaffee  (daughter  of  Joseph 
Chaffee,  grandson  of  Thomas  Chaffee,  of  Hingham, 
Mass.,  and  Hannah  May,  great  granddaughter  of  an 
English  sailor  who  emigrated  from  Sussex  in  1635). 
About  1762  they  removed  to  Hampden  Co.,  Mass. 
(South  Wilbraham),  where  Morris  engaged  in  farming, 
and  where  he  died  in  1769,  leaving  a  comfortable 
estate  for  these  days.  He  saw  stirring  times.  At  the 
celebration  of  the  centennial  of  South  Wilbraham,  in 
1863,  the  historical  address  of  Dr.  Stebbins,  which  makes 
frequent  reference  to  Isaac  Morris  and  his  family, 
contains  the  following  passage. 

''Burt  tells  his  vigorous  son  to  cross  the  mountains,  by 
Rattlesnake  Peak  and  rouse  the  Crockers,  Cones,  Russells, 
Kings,  and  stay  not  till  all  the  men  of  the  South  Valley,  from 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS  7 

the  corner  to  Isaac  Morris',  were  summoned  to  the  march. 
Mward,    said  Isaac  Morris  to  his  son,  ^ Bring  the  horse' 
and  as  soon  as  he  had  slung  his  powder-horn  over  his  shoulder, 
put  his  bullets  into  his  pocket  and  taken  down  his  trusty  gun 
from  Its  hooks,  the  faithful  steed  was  at  the  door.     Breathing 
a  prayer  for  his  heroic  wife,  standing  by  in  a  speechless  sub- 
mission,  he  was  off  at  full  speed  on  the  track  of  young  Burt 
Before  sundown,  thirty-four  men  were  on  the  'Great  Bay 
Road,    hastening  to  defend  their  rights,  but  the  'red  coats' 
had  returned   to   Boston,   and   our   'minute-men'   returned 
home  after  ten  days." 

Isaac  Morris,  who  died  in  1778,  had  twelve  children, 
seven  sons  and  Rve  daughters;  of  whom 
^  VI.  Ephraim  Morris,  the  youngest  child,  was  born 
m  South  Wilbraham,  Mass.,  17th  March,  1772  Left 
fatherless  at  the  age  of  six,  he  was  placed  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  brother,  Isaac,  nineteen  years  his 
senior,  who  resided  at  Monson,  Mass. 

''Of  this  brother  he  often  spoke  with  the  utmost  regard 
trom  the  remembrance  of  those  principles  which  he  incul- 
cated and  which  had  much  to  do  in  the  formation  of  his 
character." 

He  was  apprenticed  to  the  tanning  trade,  and  was 
master  tanner  at  twenty-one.     Some  time  prior  to  his 
marriage,  he  settled  in  Stafford,  Tolland  Co.,  Conn 
where  he  remained  till  1804-5.     In  October,  1776,  he 
married  Pamela  Converse  (daughter  of  Jesse  Converse, 
of  the  fifth  generation  in  descent  from  Edward  Converse' 
who  came  from  England  with  Winthrop,  in  1630,  and 
Mary  Moulton,   probably  of  Nova  Scotian    (Er^glish) 
ancestry).     She  "was  a  handsome  woman,  light  com- 
plexion, blue  eyes,  tall  and  very  fair,  kind,  gentle,  and 
beloved  by  all."     She  irradiated  gracious  influence  till 
the  very  last— her  death  took  place  in  1846.     Attracted 


8 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


by  reports  of  the  fertility  of  lands  in  Braintree,  Vermont, 
one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  north  of  Stafford,  Conn., 
Morris  bought  136  acres  of  woodland  wild,  in  Roxbury, 
Washington  Co.,  Vt.,  in  1804,  and  migrated  thither. 
I  suppose  he  was  more  or  less  deceived  by  'wild  catting'; 
in  any  case,  a  Morris  was  beaten  for  once.  Meeting 
with  no  success,  he  removed  to  Bethel,  Windsor  Co., 
Vt.,  in  1812.     Having  purchased  a  two-story  house,  he 

''added  many  improvements,  and  in  1825  brought  on  his 
shoulders  from  Squire  Marsh's  sugar  orchard  .  .  .  the  small 
saplings  which  have  now  grown  to  be  the  large  maple  trees 
standing  in  front  of  the  homestead,  shielding,  as  it  were,  the 
old  home  and  sacred  memories  of  their  master  gone  so  long 
ago.  .  .  .  He  also  improved  the  homestead  with  a  slant  roof 
and  a  one-story  addition  in  the  rear,  setting  on  blinds  and 
painting  the  outside  white,  making  the  appearance  quite 
attractive.  This  was  .  .  .  the  rendezvous  for  children  and 
grandchildren  at  all  times  of  the  year,  and  all  freely  confess,  the 
best  visits  of  their  Uves  were  those  made  at  the  old  homestead." 

This  is  the  place  where  we  hear  early  of  George 
Sylvester  Morris — "playing  hide  and  seek  with  his 
younger  cousins  all  over  the  house,  and  seeming  to  like 
it  as  well  as  they."  Ephraim  Morris  pursued  the  tanning 
business  with  success  and,  although  he  held  few  public 
offices,  he  was  "one  of  the  prominent  and  influential 
men  of  the  town,  well  thought  of  and  much  respected. 
He  was  a  great  admirer  of  Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Web- 
ster, and  by  many  was  said  to  resemble  the  latter.  In 
politics  he  was  Federalist  and  Whig.  His  complexion, 
hair  and  eyes  were  dark;  above  the  medium  in  height, 
and  a  large  head."  He  died  in  1852,  and  his  funeral 
sermon  records: 

"If  he  moved  at  all,  it  was  in  the  front  rank.  And  seldom 
did  any  laudable  and  benevolent  undertaking  call  in  vain 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS  9 

fl^^'l  '^'''.•;  •  •  ^'  ^''^  ^'  ^'  ^^^^^'  ^^  ^^^  ^^«^<^ise  of  the 
fullest  confidence  in  the  principles  of  experimental  rehgion. 
He  mdulged  no  idle  vagaries.  .  .  .  Possessing  a  clear  and 
discnmmatmg  mmd,  together  with  an  uncommon  degree  of 
energy,  regulated  by  his  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  and 
by  those  Puritanic  principles  which  he  early  imbibed,  he 
proved  himself  a  man  of  steriing  worth.'' 

^  Like  his  father,  Ephraim  Morris  had  twelve  children 
SIX  sons  and  six  daughters;  of  whom  the  eldest  was 

VII.  Sylvester  Morris,  born  in  Stafford,  Conn.,  23d 
Sept.,   1797— a  babe  destined    to  become   an  unusual 
man,  the  most  noteworthy,  in  many  wavs,  of  all  his 
people;  the  intensity  of  the  New  England  conscience, 
with  every  quality  and  defect  of  quality,  palpitated  in 
his  massive  personality.     To  be  so  fathered  was  some- 
thing.   But   It   was    not    all.     On    1st   August,    1822 
Sylvester  Morris  married  Susanna  Weston,  a  descendant 
of  the  Westons  and  Washburns,  of  Middleboro',  Mass. 
She  had  no  less  than  six  direct  ancestors,  on  both  sides 
of    her    house,    aboard    the    Mayfloiver.     The    English 
^i\gnm   strain   was  thus  reinforced   once  more.     For, 
"Susanna  was  .  .  .  small  and  fair  in  appearance,  with  blue 
eyes  and  delicate  features,  and  a  rehgious  nature  the  depth 
and  fervour  of  which  brought  her  into  closest  sympathy  with 
her  husband.     If  he  had  the  miHtant  virtues  of  hero  and 
martyr,  she,  like  her  mother  before  her,  was  a  saint,  with  an 
mtensity  of  devotion  and  a  depth  of  rehgious  experience 
uncommon  even  in  women."* 

Her  family  "were  known  for  a  certain  refinement 
and  love  of  learning  uncommon  in  that  time  and  region.^'f 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morris  had  eight  children,  five  sons  and 
three  daughters;  of  whom 

*  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Sylvester  Morris,  by  his  granddaughter 
Kate  Morris  Cone,  p.  16. 
Ubid. 


I 


10 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


VIII.  George  Sylvester  Morris,  the  subject  of  this 
biography,  was  the  youngest  child.  He  was  born  on 
15th  November,  1840,  in  Norwich,  Vermont,  a  village 
just  across  the  Connecticut  River  from  Dartmouth, 
New  Hampshire — place,  like  race,  was  to  have  important 
bearing  on  his  career. 


CHAPTER  I 

The  New  England  Home 

More  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed  since 
George    Morns    died,    cut    off    untimely.    Subsequent 
movements  of  every  kind  have  been  so  momentous,  so 
unforeseen,  that  he  may  appear  remote  already.     But 
It  IS  not  so.    For,  taking  a  few  significant  names  at 
random,  we  must  remind  ourselves  that  he  was  born 
in  the  middle  of  the  decade  which  gave  us  Thomas  Hill 
Green,  Grover  Cleveland.  Swinburne,  Marcus  Hanna, 
J.  P.  Morgan,  Henry  Sidgwick,  Zola,  August   Bebel, 
Tschaikowsky,  William  James.  Andrew  Lang,  George 
H.   Darwm,   and   Thomas   Edison.      In   other   words 
he  survives,  with  the  men  of  his  file,  part  and  parcel  of 
our  puzzlmg  epoch.     Yet.  so  enormous  have  been  the 
displacements  these  last  seventy-five  years,  especially 
in  the  I  mted  States,  that  a  great  effort  of  imagination 
is  necessary  to  reproduce  the  pioneer  conditions  of  1840 
Takmg  the  means  of  communication  only,  for  example! 
bylvester  Morris  was  two  years  old  ere  the  first  road  was 
laid    through   that   section   of   southeastern   Vermont- 
his  son  had  turned  nine  ere  the  first  railwav  offered  a 
precarious  service.    Boston,  reached  by  two-horse  sleigh 
the  very  snow  favouring  travel,  marked  the  limit  of  a 
difficult  journey,  ventured  at  long  intervals;  and  was 
the  terminus-the  veritable  hub  then-of  the  universe 
fortunately.  Mrs.  Cone  has  preserved  a  vivid  picture 
ot  Sylvester  Morris,  based  on  intimate  personal  recol- 
lections: and,  starting  from  this,  it  is  possible  to  recover 

11 


12 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


many  of  the  circumstances  that  moulded  George  Morris 
from  the  cradle  on  to  early  manhood.* 

Sylvester  Morris  was  seven  years  old  when  his  father, 
returning  to  the  pioneer  traditions  of  the  family,  migrated 
into  the  wilds  of  Vermont. 

''Although  no  record  of  it  remains,  the  journey  thither, 
long  and  difficult  as  it  was,  doubtless  made  its  impression 
upon  Sylvester's  childish  mind.  The  distance  was  two 
hundred  miles,  and  was  accomplished  by  waggon,  and  prob- 
ably, also,  partly  on  horse-back.  .  .  .  The  region  was  a 
mountain  wilderness,  recently  and  sparsely  inhabited, 
destitute  of  churches,  without  regular  communication  with 
the  outside  world,  and  with  the  humblest  and  poorest  con- 
ditions of  life.  ...  In  these  years,  however,  fell  the  most 
impressionable  period  of  Sylvester  Morris's  life.  In  Roxbury 
he  grew  from  a  child  of  seven  to  be  a  tall  youth  of  sixteen, 
his  character  nearly  formed,  his  school-days  ended,  and  what 
was  to  be  of  the  greatest  importance  in  its  influence  on  his 
whole  after-life,  his  career  as  a  Christian  begun.  ...  It  is 
probable  that  he  went  to  school  in  district  No.  1,  which  had 
been  set  off  by  the  town  in  1801.  What  he  studied,  and  who 
his  teachers  were,  we  do  not  know  ...  he  was  all  his  life  an 
inteUigent  reader,  an  excellent  speller,  a  fair  penman,  with 
correct  and  dignified  methods  of  expression,  and  sufficiently 
versed  in  mathematics  for  the  conduct  of  business.  .  .  .  His 
rehgious  training  was  accomplished  under  even  more  primi- 
tive circumstances,  for  the  settlers  of  Roxbury  were  more 
loyal  to  Puritan  traditions  in  their  schools  than  in  their 
churches.  .  .  .  Rehgious  services  were  meanwhile  conducted 
by  itinerant  preachers,  and  held  in  school-houses  or  barns, 
or,  like  the  town  meetings,  in  neighbourhood  kitchens.  At 
some  revival,  in  some  such  place,  in  the  midst  of  neighbours 
and  schoolmates,  Sylvester  Morris,  a  boy  of  twelve,  took  the 
stand  as  a  Christian  which  he  was  to  maintain  with  unusual 

*  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Sylvester  Morris.  Kate  Morris  Cone.  Pri- 
vately printed;  Boston,  1887.  Mrs.  Cone  is  a  daughter  of  Ephraim 
Morris,  third  son  and  fifth  child  of  Sylvester  Morris,  and  is  therefore  a 
niece  of  George  Sylvester  Morris. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


13 


sincerity  and  manliness  the  rest  of  his  long  hfe— seventy- 
seven  years." 

Ephraim  Morris,  his  father, 

''had,  and  most  of  his  children  had  also,  a  well-developed 
social  sense,  a  wholesome  regard  for  good  blood  and  good 
breeding,  and  the  tolerant  spirit  towards  human  failings 
essential  to  the  fabric  of  social  intercourse.  He  was  proud  of 
his  family  connections  in  Connecticut,  and  scrupulously  kept 
up  an  interchange  of  visits  there.  Like  most  men  of  his  time 
he  was  not  averse  to  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors;  his  daughters 
attended  once  a  year  the  balls  of  the  region;  and  he  was  a 
conservative  in  politics,  and  grieved  and  mortified  at  the 
radicalism  of  his  eldest  son. 

''In  contrast  with  all  this  was  the  earnest  and  exalted 
character  which  Sylvester  Morris,  as  he  came  to  manhood 
displayed;   from   the   outset   totally   unconscious'  of   social 
distinctions,  a  man  to  whom  the  sole  realities  were  God's 
providence  and  the  responsibihty  of  man  to  God,  and  who 
tried  everything,  great  and  small,  in  the  absolute  balance 
of  right  and  wrong.     He  had  a  strong  body,  a  great  head  — 
his  hat  was  as  large  as  Carlyle's  father's,— and  a  nervous 
energy  which  displayed  itself  in  the  very  touch  of  his  hand 
and  sound  of  his  voice.     He  was  afraid  of  nobody,  he  courted 
opposition,  and,  serious  and  severe  as  he  was,  he  had  a  kind 
of  rough  humour  and  a  keenness  of  insight  into  the  weaknesses 
of  others  which  he  used  without  mercy.     Intellectual  tolera- 
tion, gentle  breeding,  and  the  amenities  of  life  he  neither 
possessed  nor  regarded.     A  radical  by  the  verv  constitution 
of  his  mind,  he  appeared  to  some  as  a  PhiHstine,  a  fanatic 
an  impossible  absolutist  in  this  sphere  of  mixed  relations- 
yet  in  a  far  truer  light  he  was  a  hero,  and  a  citizen  of  the 
world  of  most  exalted  moral  ideals,  with  the  temper  of  the 
martyr  in  him.     He  was  called,  however,  neither  to  martyr- 
dom nor  glory,  but,  hke  many  another  man  of  his  time,  to  be 
for  forty  years  true  to  his  principles  amid  the  commonplace 
surroundings  of  life  in  a  New  England  country  town,  for  the 
most  part  the  sole  exponent  there  of  absolute  justice  and 
right  on  the  two  great  social  questions  of  his  day,— slavery 
and  intemperance.  ... 


14 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


"He  was  a  man  of  affairs  in  business.  Like  his  father,  a 
tanner  by  trade,  he  displayed  great  shrewdness  and  abihty 
in  the  establishment  and  conduct  of  not  a  few  enterprises  of 
importance.  .  .  .  With  this  real  business  ability  and  lavish 
expenditure  of  effort,  there  were,  however,  combined  a  certain 
carelessness  and  generosity  which,  fine  traits  as  they  were  in 
his  character,  did  not  contribute  to  his  pecuniary  success.  .  .  . 
His  services  were  greatly  in  demand  with  widows  and  or- 
phans, on  account  of  his  business  integrity  and  well-known 
habit  of  doing  better  for  others  than  for  himself,  and  in  his 
dealings  with  the  poor  some  of  his  noblest  traits  came  to 
light. 

"In  the  rehgious  life  of  the  communities  in  which  they 
hved,  his  wife  and  he  took  a  leading  part,  with  the  enduring 
faithfulness  in  attendance  on  the  ordinances  of  the  church, 
which  is  the  ideal  of  the  Calvinistic  system.  '  Here  I  have 
stood  for  forty  years,'  some  one  remembers  him  to  have  said 
at  prayer-meeting;  and  Susanna  Morris,  guiding  the  unwilling 
steps  of  her  little  boys  to  prayer-meeting  on  pleasant  summer 
nights,  remains  an  example  of  rehgious  duty  personified. 
He  was  a  deacon  in  the  Congregational  church,  at  Norwich, 
for  thirty-seven  years,  and  according  to  a  custom,  since  fallen 
into  disuse,  was  wont  to  sit  beside  his  pastor  at  prayer-meet- 
ing, and  lead  in  prayer.  On  these  occasions  his  tall  form  and 
mighty  voice,  as  he  stood  with  head  upUfted  and  arms  out- 
stretched, made  a  memorable  impression  on  the  younger 
generation  that  beheld  him.  .  .  .  The  Sabbath  was  observed 
with  a  strictness  which  scrupled  at  even  the  picking  of  a 
flower;  and  the  head  of  the  family  had  all  a  Puritan's  objec- 
tion against  games,  from  authors  and  checkers  downwards. 

"According  to  the  temperament  of  the  different  members 
of  the  family,  this  plain  Hving  and  high  thinking  produced  its 
impression.  It  had  its  dark  side,  in  which  are  combined 
memories  of  the  lack  of  beauty  and  grace  in  life,  occasional 
sharp  words  and  rebukes  from  the  mother,  the  father's 
seasons  of  mental  depression  and  fits  of  the  blues,  the  stern 
punishments  in  which  whippings  followed  prayer,  and  a 
general  distaste  for  the  family  radicalism  which  mortification 
at  the  father's  loud,  long  prayers,  and  great  hands  stained  in 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


15 


the  tanyard,  went  far  towards  fostering.     Yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  one  cannot  forget  on  how  high  a  plane  the  family  life 
ran,  or  how  rich  it  was  in  spiritual  suggestion  and  religious 
aspiration.  .  .  .  Whatever  their  way  of  life,  not  meanness 
and  stinginess,  but  a  noble  and  unselfish  generosity  was  at  the 
heart  of  it.  .  .  .  All  that  is  sacred  in  the  associations  of 
religious  instruction  and  worship,  Sylvester  Morris  and  his 
wife  afforded  their  children.     He  was  the  Puritan  father  at 
the  head  of  his  family,  and  the  spirit  which  is  the  very  essence 
of  New  England  institutions  breathed  in  that  home.  .  .  . 
"But  his  life-work,  and  the  thing  for  which  he  is  to  be 
especially  remembered,  was  his  position  regarding  the  two 
great  social  questions  of  his  day.     He  was  the  local  apostle 
of  anti-slavery  and  temperance  in  the  towns  in  which  he 
lived,  and  threw  himself  into  the  promotion  of  each  cause 
with  all  the  energy  of  his  strong  nature.     On  both  subjects 
he  took  extreme  and  absolute  ground,  regarding  total  abstin- 
ence   as    the   solution    of    the   temperance    question,    and 
slavery  as  a  crime  against  the  inherent  rights  of  man.  .  .  . 
He  became  a  sort  of  public  conscience,  a  'character,'  in  the 
streets  and  public  places  of  Norwich,  and  no  occasion  was  too 
common  or  adversary  too  high  or  low  for  his  attacks.     In  the 
post-oflSce  and  village  store  he  was  almost  daily  to  be  seen, 
the  centre  of  an  amused  and  applauding  group  of  lookers-on, 
preaching  righteousness,   and  applying  to  some  individual 
the    most   searching   personal   inquiries.  .  .  .  Between    Dr. 
Lord,  the  shrewd  pohtician,  president  of  Dartmouth  College, 
and  him,  there  was  at  first  a  strong  bond  of  abolition  sym- 
pathy, broken,  of  course,  by  Dr.  Lord's  final  going  over  to  the 
enemy,  which,  inexpHcable  as  it  seemed  to  Sylvester  Morris, 
taught  him  charity,  he  said,  because  he  knew  Dr.  Lord  for  a 
good  man.     Towards  the  professors  at  Dartmouth  he  felt 
varying  degrees  of  antagonism,  partly  on  religious  and  partly 
on  pohtical  grounds.  ...  As  regards  that  famous  institution, 
by  which  many  a  fugitive  slave  was  handed  on  from  one 
friendly  house  to  another,  public  sentiment  in  Vermont  was 
too   undecided,    and   the   Canada  fine   too   near,    to   make 
the  harbouring  of  slaves  in  Norwich  particularly  dangerous. 
Danger  or  not,  a  room  was  devoted  to  such  guests  in  the 


16 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


Morris  house,  and  there,  sometimes  for  several  days,  the 
poor  creatures  were  sheltered,  the  women  often  gladly  taking 
part  in  the  work  of  the  household.  .  .  .  The  service  was 
simple  enough,  but  by  it  Sylvester  Morris  was  linked  to  a 
line  of  friendly  hearts  which  stretched  across  the  Union,  and 
the  sight  of  the  poor,  trembling,  often  maimed  and  lacerated 
fugitives,  afraid  for  their  lives  of  capture,  and  especially 
warned  against  Dr.  Lord,  at  Hanover,  fanned  the  flame  of 
indignation  at  their  oppressors. 

''  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  in  politics  Sylvester  Morris 
stood    with   the    extreme    Abolitionists.  .  .  .  Re   took    the 
Liberator;   and   the   arrival   of   the   National   Era,   with   its 
instalments  of  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  was  an  event  in  his 
household  celebrated  by  the  assembhng  of  the  whole  family 
to  hear  it  read  aloud.     His  indignation  at  the  position  of  the 
churches  towards  slavery,  and  the  famous  petition  of  New 
England  ministers,  knew  no  bounds.     'Fools,  lick-spittles, 
cowards!'  was  only  a  slight  expression  of  his  opinion.  .  .  . 
He  outlived  by  more  than  twenty  years  the  triumph  of  the 
anti-slavery  cause,  but  he  was  also  a  witness  to  nearly  as 
great  a  revolution  in  public  opinion  regarding  intemperance. 
In  the  days  of  his  early  manhood  and  prime,  the  punch-bowl 
was  the  ornament  of  every  sideboard,  and  the  offering  of  wine 
a  necessary  hospitaUty  to  every  guest.     He  Hved  to  see  liquor 
of  all  sorts  banished  from  the  majority  of  households,  and  the 
temperance  element  in  pohtics  a  factor  of  importance." 

When  it  comes  to  criticism,  a  man  so  zealous  and 
intolerant  as  Sylvester  Morris,  a  culture  so  stiff  and 
straitened,  are  all  too  easy  marks.  The  harsh  judgments 
they  evoked  have  had  their  day  long  since,  from  Samuel 
Butler  down. 


"A  sect  whose  chief  devotion  lies 

In  odd,  perverse  antipathies; 

In  falling  out  with  that  or  this, 

And  finding  somewhat  still  amiss;  .  .  . 

Compound  for  sins  they  are  inclined  to 

By  damning  those  they  have  no  mind  to." 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


17 


One  would  do  better  to  adopt  the  reflection  of  a  great 
thinker,  when  he  bethought  him  of  his  pious  parents, 
from  whom  he  differed  widely.     Kant  wrote, 

''  The  rehgious  ideas  of  these  times,  and  the  prevalent  notions 
of  virtue  and  piety  could  hardly  be  said  to  be  either  clear  or 
satisfactory,  but  the  root  of  the  matter  was  in  them.  Say 
what  you  will  of  Pietism,  no  one  can  deny  the  sterhng  worth 
of  the  characters  which  it  formed.  It  gave  them  the  highest 
thing  that  man  can  possess — that  peace,  that  inner  harmony 
with  self  which  can  be  disturbed  by  no  passion.  .  .  .  Even 
the  casual  observer  was  touched  with  an  involuntary  feeUng 
of  respect  before  such  men." 

But,  for  our  present  purpose,  even  this  is  insufficient. 
Sylvester  Morris  partook  in  the  spirit  of  those  remarkable 
New  England  leaders,  the  early  preachers.  The  forces 
that  bred  John  Cotton,  Thomas  Shepard  and  Thomas 
Hooker  among  the  clergy,  the  Winthrops,  Thomas 
Dudley,  Simon  Bradstreet,  William  Brewster,  Pynchon 
and  John  Haynes  among  the  laity,  were  once  more 
victorious,  even  if  sad,  in  this  latest  hero  of  the  direct 
line.  Sylvester  Morris  was  the  last,  or  almost  the  last 
incarnation  of  a  race  of  thinkers  whose  theological  beliefs 
determined  their  political  aspirations.  To  understand 
him,  and  to  appreciate  the  influences  that  went  to  the 
making  of  his  son,  we  must  attempt  to  grasp  the  history 
and  import  of  the  outlook  that  could  become  so  uncom- 
promising, masterful  and,  in  its  way,  unique. 

Whatever  may  be  said  in  praise  or  derogation  of 
English  and  American  Puritanism,  it  was  certainly  a 
distinctive  expression  of  race-consciousness.  So  much 
so  that,  had  the  little  craft  which  lay  in  the  Thames 
estuary  with  Cromwell,  Hampden  and  Haselrig  aboard, 
been  fated  to  bear  its  precious  freight  to  Massachusetts 
Bay,  the  subsequent  history  of  the  Motherland  might 
3 


18 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


have  run  very  differently.  And,  like  every  significant 
change,  long  wrought  secretly  in  the  womb  of  a  people, 
Puritanism  drew  upon  many  sources  of  nourishment. 
Accordingly,  it  achieved  various  culminations.  Crom- 
well, Milton,  Baxter  and  Bunyan  were  its  most  articulate 
representatives,  while,  in  New  England,  under  far  other 
conditions,  it  brought  forth  a  society  peculiarly  its  own. 
The  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island 
colonies  possessed  their  several  traits,  because  the 
political  genius  of  Cromwell,  the  intellectual  genius  of 
Milton,  the  theological  genius  of  Baxter,  the  social 
genius  of  Bunyan  travelled  overseas,  and  reproduced 
themselves  as  formative  elements  in  the  young  com- 
munities. Massachusetts  stood  nearer  the  Cromwell- 
Milton-Baxter  interests  than  Rhode  Island,  which,  in 
turn,  drank  deeper  from  Bunyan.  But,  when  society 
in  the  new  world  struck  its  own  stride,  all  these  factors 
were  readjusted.  As  an  alchemist  would  have  put  it, 
the  physical  circumstances,  the  economic  conditions 
and  the  untrammelled  political  idealism  of  New  England 
furnished  an  original  menstruum  for  a  novel  combination. 
The  resultant  precipitate  is  not  hard  to  detect.  In 
these  compact,  isolated  groups,  the  English  race  attained 
a  fresh  consciousness,  which  operated  so  acutely  that 
mere  ^common'  individuals  became  more  than  them- 
selves, adding  a  cubit  to  their  stature.  The  general 
level  was  wonderfully  high,  because  every  man  apart 
nourished  his  character  upon  aims  for  which  all  had 
striven  passionately.  Hence,  conspicuous  achievement 
became  a  normal  condition — personalities  abounded, 
where  every  man  was  thoroughbred  in  a  communal 
culture.  The  average  citizen  forced  a  reckoning,  because 
the  power  of  the  many  coincided  with  the  performance 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


19 


of  the  one,  and  the  principle  of  indifference,  enunciated 
so  soon  in  England,  by  Locke,  could  strike  no  root. 
This,  indeed,  gives  the  key  to  the  situation.  As  Shepard 
said,  "It  is  Satan's  policy  to  plead  for  an  indefinite  and 
boundless  toleration."  And  Dudley,  emotion  moving 
him  to  rhyme,  wrote, 

''Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch." 

In  short,  the  Puritan  culture  loved  to  dwell  upon  extremes 
— a  mean  was  anathema.  Life  can  be  split  into  virtue 
and  vice,  for,  where  man  is  a  creature  of  wrath,  all  days 
are  Sabbaths.  Civil  government,  statute  law  and 
social  intercourse  are,  no  less  than  religion,  under  the 
immediate  eye  of  the  Great  Task-Master.  Hence  it 
was  important  that  the  socio-politico-religious  systems 
of  the  old  world,  whether  swayed  by  an  omnipresent 
Laud  or  by  a  remote  pope,  should  be  met  by  a  like  and, 
if  possible,  more  pervasive  organization.  But  a  social 
structure  of  this  kind  must  needs  be  supported  by  legal 
sanctions.  These,  again,  lay  ready  to  hand,  forged  by 
the  internal  temper  of  Calvinism.  Political  freedom 
as  developed  in  Europe  was  an  achievement  of  the  small, 
intense  national  groups.  And,  even  more  than  the 
Swiss,  the  Scots  and  the  Dutch,  the  New  England 
'minute  men,'  worthy  sons  of  their  fathers,  are  indebted 
to  Calvin  for  their  conception  of  autocracy.  Almost 
two  generations  before  Rousseau  and  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  John  Wise,  from  Roxbury,  the  Morris 
home,  had  made  this  fact  plain. 

''The  end  of  all  good  government  is  to  cultivate  humanity 
and  promote  the  happiness  of  all,  and  the  good  of  every  man 
in  all  his  rights,  his  fife,  liberty,  estate,  honour,  and  so  forth, 
without  injury  or  abuse  to  any."* 

*  A  Vindication  of  the  Government  of  New  England  Churches,  p.  42. 


20 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


21 


But  words  are  meaningless  save  for  the  ideas  they 
convey.  And,  with  the  Puritan,  'virtue,'  'vice,'  'free- 
dom' do  not  belong  to  the  sensuous  world;  on  the  con- 
trary, they  imply  complicated  standards  of  judgment, 
always  capable  of  adjustment,  always  in  need  of  vindica- 
tion, in  short,  always  stimulating  to  the  intellect.  So, 
like  every  system,  Puritanism  developed  its  paradoxes. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  elevated  man  to  a  plane  of  co- 
partnership with  God.  Life  here  below  acquired  unut- 
terable seriousness,  because  a  holy  people  was  chartered 
to  execute  the  Divine  will,  and  therefore  to  stand  forth 
superior,  an  example  to  the  whole  earth.  Civil  institu- 
tions— the  state  and,  more  emphatically,  the  family — 
were  sanctified.  The  very  suggestion  of  provincialism 
took  to  flight,  for,  "we  are  the  people,  and  wisdom  will 
die  with  us."  Blasphemy  and  adultery,  the  latter 
including  all  social  lapses  (innocent  amusements  no  less 
than  gross  indulgences),  threw  the  other  commandments 
into  shadow  and,  I  fear,  sometimes  brought  total  eclipse 
upon  the  Beatitudes.  Amenity  did  not  exist.  A  mere 
moment  between  tw^o  eternities,  a  moment  of  preparation 
against  the  wrath  to  come,  life  held  no  place  for  such 
trifling.  In  short,  a  certain  state  of  psychological  being, 
not  a  'thing'  among  other  sensible  things,  but  a  steadfast 
condition  of  mind,  was  the  dominant  ideal.  A  con- 
suming passion,  having  free  course  and  glorification, 
provided  the  motive  to  make  this  ideal  actual.  II  n'y 
a  que  de  grandes  passions  que  f assent  de  grandes  choses. 
But,  man,  being  what  he  is,  cannot  put  off  environment. 
The  pursuit  of  a  spiritual  purpose  is  bound  to  alter 
sensuous  things. 

So,  on  the  contrary,  Puritanism,  a  mood  of  other- 
worldliness,  came  to  be  beset  by  a  worldliness  of  its  own. 


The  Lord  had  commanded,  "Enter  in  and  possess  the 
land."  To  be  free,  a  man  must  be  a  freeholder!  To 
sustain  his  mission,  he  must  necessarily  sustain  himself! 
And,  naturally  enough,  the  asceticism  of  toil  brought  a 
double  reward.  It  not  only  toughened  the  conscience, 
but  enabled  the  citizen  to  boast,  "The  rent-day  doth 
not  trouble  us;  and  all  those  good  blessings  we  have  .  .  . 
in  their  seasons,  for  the  taking."  In  due  time,  the 
tendencies  of  the  spirit  gave  form,  if  not  comeliness,  to 
modes  of  social  intercourse,  to  industrial  relations  and 
to  the  training  of  the  youth.  The  New  Englander 
fitted  his  infinity  to  the  finite,  and  entered  upon  his 
great  destiny — the  political,  moral  and  economic  control 
of  the  United  States.  In  'God's  country'  the  people 
of  God  must  bear  rule  and,  perforce,  eschew^  beliefs  too 
lofty  for  adjustment  to  average  affairs. 

Yet,  even  so,  the  Puritan  gave  more  than  he  received. 
His  fearlessness  and  conviction  shaped  circumstances; 
a  peculiar  civilization  was  created.  Thus,  taking  the 
Morris  household, 

"Sylvester  Morris  was  as  liberal  with  money  as  his  circum- 
stances permitted  him  to  be,  and  his  large-hearted  confidence 
and  trust  in  his  sons  is  among  his  most  precious  bequests. 
They  were  trained  at  home,  too,  both  by  example  and  discip- 
Hne,  in  the  most  important  principles  of  public  spirit  and 
obedience  to  authority.  If  the  boys  were  punished  at  school, 
they  were  punished  again  at  home,  and  the  maintenance  of 
the  church  and  other  public  interests  was  strictl}^  inculcated.* 

Dutiful  obedience  to  the  Heavenly  Father,  a  matter 
of  belief,  was  translated  into  dutiful  obedience  to  the 
earthly  father  and  to  all  institutions  whereof  he  had 
been   made   free,   a   matter   of  practical   arrangement. 

*  Mrs.  Cone,  Ibid.,  p.  22. 


1 


22 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


23 


As  the  finger  of  the  one  could  be  traced  in  every  dealing 
with  man,  so  the  authority  of  the  other  must  be  accepted. 
Both  were  mysteriously  unaccountable;  but,  whereas  a 
reckoning  with  the  former  partook  of  flat  blasphemy,  it 
might  arrive  with  the  latter,  'practical  politics'  so 
conspiring.  Accordingly,  thanks  to  the  temper  of  its 
civil  government,  the  intensity  of  its  family  life  and  the 
norms  of  its  social  control.  New  England  Puritanism 
assumed  the  character  of  a  stable  environment,  one  no 
less  formative  than  climate,  soil  or  untamed  nature. 

Now  this  is  to  assert  that  it  passed  rapidly  from  theory 
to   practice,   from   exercise   of   the   intellect   upon   the 
Scriptures  to  discipline  of  the  will  within  the  home,  the 
church  and  the  vocation.     Hating  Romanism  with  a 
perfect  hatred,  it  nevertheless  bred  a  Catholicism  of  its 
own— not  a  theory,  but  a  way  of  life  penetrating  to 
every  corner  of  the  average  career.     As  Herder  said  of 
Romanism,  "A  cross,  a  picture  of  Mary  with  the  child, 
a  Mass,  a  rosary,  were  more  to  its  purpose  than  much 
fine   speculation."     So,   too,   with   the   New   England 
Puritan:   a    "grim   happiness,"    a   secular   decorum,    a 
naive  democracy  and  a  sharpened  thrift  in  an  industrial 
home   incited   him   to   unbroken   effort   long   after   his 
abstruse  theology  had  come  to  be  taken  for  granted. 
He  inherited  his  theories,  and  had  little,  if  any,  first- 
hand knowledge  of  the  intellectual  processes  whereby 
they  had  been  reached.     His  institutions,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  his  own,  to  do  with  as  he  deemed  best;  and 
the  struggle  for  independence,  the  war  of  1812,  like  the 
Homeric  battles  'in  the  West'  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,    confirmed    this    sense    of   active    ownership    in 
rights,  based  on  personal  sacrifice,  and  always  for  a 
larger  whole.     Thus,  while  he  had  patience  and  long- 


suffering  with  the  urgent  affairs  of  common  life,  he  lost 
the  patience  necessary  to  the  criticism  of  particular 
doctrines,  much  more  to  the  justification  of  a  Weltan- 
schauung. And  yet,  despite  the  paradox,  the  framework 
of  his  daily  round  was  itself  the  issue  of  a  lofty  experience, 
of  a  theory  which  could  animate  a  race,  even  although 
nowise  capable  of  proof,  and  therefore  destined  to 
shipwreck  sooner  or  later.  In  the  midst  of  Nature, 
and  with  the  humble  tools  of  a  world  he  affected  to 
despise,  the  Puritan  built  him  an  earthly  habitation, 
unwitting  that  these  non-human  'creatures'  could  never 
be  adjusted  completely  to  transcendent  intuitions. 
His  ideals  were  doomed  to  pay  toll.  For,  his  common 
life  sustained  an  uncommon  quality,  while  his  uncommon 
theories  sank  inevitably  to  the  level  of  pseudo-philo- 
sophical commonplaces. 

By  the  time  of  the  fourth  generation  from  the  first 
immigrants — that  of  Isaac  Morris — such  a  man  as 
Charles  Channing  (1705-87)  serves  to  show  how  the 
wind  was  blowing.  His  sermon  on  Enthusiasm  (1742), 
a  tremendous  castigation  of  the  Whitefield  movement, 
already  presages  the  revolt  that  was  to  manifest  itself 
in  Unitarianism.  Not  only  this.  It  is  a  trumpet  call 
back  from  giddy  speculations  to  the  quiet  orderliness 
of  daily  life  prevalent  in  New  England. 

''The  enthusiast  is  one  who  has  a  conceit  of  himself  as  a 
person  favored  with  the  extraordinary  presence  of  the  Deity. 
He  mistakes  the  workings  of  his  own  passions  for  divine 
communications;  and  fancies  himself  immediately  inspired 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  when  all  the  while  he  is  under  no  other 
influence  than  that  of  an  over-heated  imagination.  .  .  . 
And  various  are  the  ways  in  which  their  enthusiasm  dis- 
covers itself.  .  .  .  Sometimes,  it  will  unaccountably  mix 
itself  with  their  conduct,  and  give  it  such  a  tincture  of  that 


I 


24 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


which  IS  freakish  and  furious  as  none  can  have  an  idea  of  but 
those  who  have  seen  the  behaviour  of  a  person  in  a  frenzy 
And  what  extravagances,  in  this  temper  of  mind,  are  they 
not  capable  of,  and  under  the  specious  pretext  too  of  paying 
obedience  to  the  authority  of  God? ''  ^  -^     & 

Vain  theories  serve  only  to  promote  confusion.  There- 
fore, let  the  New  Englander  stick  by  what  he  has  proven. 
Rectitude  in  the  home,  in  business,  in  politics,  and 
regularized  means  of  grace,  are  the  sound  basis  of  per- 
manent stability.  In  brief,  there  is  a  civilization  now 
and  it  IS  not  to  be  disturbed.  The  practical  achievement 
has  advanced  to  the  impregnable  position  once  in  lonely 
occupancy  of  the  theoretical  presuppositions. 

In  small,  rural  communities,  which  the  excursions  of 
pioneers  perpetuated,  theory  and  practice  kept  step  till 
after  the  Civil  war.  Religious  idealism,  with  its  theolog- 
ical  background,  controlled  secular  affairs.  Despite 
hard  toil  from  Monday  to  Saturday,  the  familv  was 
stayed  upon  the  church  and,  with  the  'elect,'  neither 
social  customs  nor  politics  were  divorced  from  the 
*  Covenants  '. 

''To  them  prayer  was  something  more  than  a  devout 
sohloquy,  or  an  exercise  in  spiritual  gymnastics  valuable  only 
for  its  reactionary  effects.  When  they  prayed  they  thought 
that  they  moved  the  hand  that  moved  the  world.  They 
spoke  of  direct  answers  to  prayer  as  one  of  the  usual  and 
indubitable  facts  of  almost  daily  experience."* 

We  must  inquire  then.  What  w^re  the  conditions  within 
which  home  life  moved  till  G.  S.  Morris  was  a  vouth? 

Leaving  political  'freedom'  aside— not  then,  by  the 
way,  bedraggled  under  the  regime  of  Bosses,  Tariffs  and 
Trusts— the  home,  neighborhood  industries  and  Congreg- 

*  A  History  of  American  Literature,  Moses  Coit  Tyler,  Vol.  I.,  p. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


25 


ationalism  were  the    familiars,  as    they  were  the   out- 
growth, of  this  pioneering  Puritanism.     And,  although 
limited  by  restraints  that  we  should  deem  intolerable 
now%  people  were  by  no  means  hopelessly  provincial 
even  in  the  days  "when  folks  w^as  folks."     They  engend- 
ered, and    preserved,  a  culture  of    their  own.     Thus, 
is  is  necessary  to  insist  that  the  'home'  is  an  ethical, 
not    a   material,    fact.     Emotion,    intellect   and   social 
wellbeing   constitute    it,    an    aggregation    of    physical 
objects    being    no    more    than    incidental.     And,    if    it 
pivots  upon  the  father  in  one  way,   in  another  it  is 
subordinated   to   the  nurture  of  the   children.     Hence, 
in  turn,  the  indispensable  part  played  by  the  mother. 
Here  we  may  detect  at  once  its  qualities,  when  it  bore 
exclusive  rule,  and  its  difficulties,  when  it  tried  to  adjust 
itself  to  a  larger  order.      For  the  claim  of  the  family 
group  upon  its  individual  members  takes  a  sweep  that 
defies  statement  in  the  conventional  ratios  of  commerce. 
The  'cash  nexus,'  with  its  impersonal  finality,  has  no 
meaning  here.     Thus,  inevitably,  even  if  unconsciously, 
the  home  tends  to  tyrannize,  to  become  the  only  good. 
And  when,  as  in  Xew^  England,  it  was  the  actual  unit  of 
society,  it  could  not  fail  to  exercise  an  unchallenged 
dominion.     Thrift    in    business,    regularity    in    waiting 
upon  religious  ordinances  and  the  constant  effort  to 
'be   a   credit   to   parents'   provided   a   series   of  moral 
standards  so  distinct  as  to  be  capable  of  classification 
under  the  term  'domestic'     Moreover,  these  prevailed, 
as  they  suflficed,  till  the  years  immediately  preceding 
the  modern  industrial  revolution.     A  profound  idealism, 
international  in  its  scope,  with  generations  behind  it, 
and  therefore  metropolitan,  not  provincial,  was  accomp- 
anied by  the  simplicity  of  life   made   possible   by  the 


26 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


absence  of  a  complex  social  order.  Despite  the  pressure 
of  economic  circumstances,  man  could  conduct  his 
career  fearlessly,  for  the  greed  of  acquisition  had  not 
laid  fatal  hold  upon  him.  The  unpretentious  white 
house,  surrounded  by  common  flowers,  its  kitchen-garden 
unconcealed,  its  berry  bushes  crowding  the  fence  shame- 
lessly, betokened  the  life  within.  Nor  did  the  titillating 
distractions  of  later  days  exist — when  we 

'^ .  .  .  .  see  all  sights  from  pole  to  pole, 
And  glance^  and  nod,  and  bustle  by; 
And  never  once  possess  our  soul 
Before  we  die." 

Newspapers  were  few,  and  these  few  not  plethoric; 
theatres,  shows,  popular  entertainments  in  the  way  of 
lectures  or  concerts,  'movies,'  and  'the  greatest  novel 
of  the  year'  (published  one  per  day  as  per  advertisement), 
there  were  none.  Consequently,  the  home  not  only 
bred  its  gracious,  if  sheltered,  virtues,  but  also  provided 
innocent  and  quiet  relaxations.  Here,  again,  its  solid- 
arity, and  therefore  supremacy,  found  reinforcement. 
For,  in  pleasure  as  much  as  in  toil,  graybeard  and  youth 
joined.  Nay  more,  amusements  that  originated  or  lay 
outside  this  range  came  to  be  suspect  by  the  very  fact. 
Little  wonder,  then,  that  one  nurtured  in  this  home 
acquired  something  larger  than  mere  separate  individ- 
uality. He  grew  to  be  the  representative  of  an  entire 
system  of  ideas,  which  gave  colour  not  simply  to  thought 
and  conduct,  but  to  the  worth  of  all  aims  deemed  fit  for 
human  devotion.  True  forcefulness  consisted  in  quick 
response  to  a  series  of  very  definite  judgments.  That 
is,  the  moral  consciousness  characterized,  even  when 
it  failed  to  determine,  the  status  of  all  relations.  Every- 
body is  aware  that  even  now,  to  the  remotest  corners 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


27 


of  the  United  States,  the  clean-run  New  Englander 
betrays  himself  by  this  home-made  scale  of  esteems  and 
disesteems.  The  horizon  of  any  life  capable  of  yielding 
satisfaction  is  bounded  by  a  dutifulness  that  knows 
no  bounds. 

Once  more,  New  England  was  a  relentless  school  of 
compulsory  labour— a  land  of  'chores.'  A  society  whose 
economic  foundation  was  the  small  holding,  whose 
commerce  hummed  in  home  industries,  promised  work, 
and  to  spare,  for  all.  Children  did  not  appear  'encum- 
brances,' there;  on  the  contrary,  they  were  a  "heritage 
of  the  Lord."*  In  due  time  they  would  take  their 
places  alongside  father  and  mother,  valiant  recruits  for 
the  common  prosperity.  When  it  was  not  tilth  that 
cried  for  hands,  it  would  be  a  modest  industrv— a  tan- 
nery,  perhaps,  or  a  saw  mill,  a  grist  mill,  a  cooperage 
where  dairy  and  sugar-sap  utensils  were  fashioned,  a 
harness  shop,  or  a  general  store.  And,  round  the 
hearth,  the  womenkind  carded  and  spun,  knitted  and 
did  needle-work;  churned,  saved  the  wood  ashes;  salted 
the  pork  for  domestic  consumption  or  with  an  eye  to  a 
fine  barter,  when  the  pedlar  appeared  on  his  rounds.f 
Thus,  the  industries  of  the  family,  in  common  with  other 
aspects  of  its  activity,  were  dominated  by  the  idea  of 
duty — self  stood  in  definite  relations  to  other  selves,  to 
the  corporate  whole.  This  inspired  all,  mother  and 
daughters  no  less  than  father  and  sons.  The  life  was 
of,  from  and  to  the  group.     'Big  business'  they  did  not 

♦The  six  New  England  generations  of  the  Morris  line  are  quite 
typical  here.  There  were  sixty-one  children,  an  average  of  10.3  for  each 
succeeding  family. 

t  Cf.  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism,  Woodbridge 
Riley,  pp.  291  f.  I  greatly  regret  that  this  book  appeared  after  my  MS. 
was  completed,  otherwise  I  could  have  derived  much  aid  from  it. 


28 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


know,  but  such  business  as  they  had  was  apt  to  be,  and 
all  unconsciously,  the  shrine  of  an  ideal.  And,  so  once 
more,  by  industrial  as  by  social  relations,  a  distinctive 
type  came  to  be  produced;  the  individual,  ordinary 
otherwise,  found  himself  caught  up  and  transfigured 
by  the  'over-individual/  Above  all,  the  illusion,  that 
a  man  may  fashion  his  own  destiny,  found  no  congenial 
soil.  For  Necessity,  the  mysterious  power  behind  the 
Fates  who  spin  the  mortal  thread,  as  Plato  tells,  pre- 
sented itself  not  merely  in  external  circumstance,  but 
under  more  august  mien. 

A  culture  so  pervasive  as  to  control  the  main  issues 
of  life  can  scarce  win  authority, — cannot  be  brought  to 
birth,  perhaps, — unless  it  have  an  infusion  of  wisdom. 
Now  wisdom  is  insight  into  the  ultimate  ends  for  which 
things  exist,  or  grasp  upon  the  system  of  truth.     As 
such,  it  presents  three  sides  at  least.     It  must  needs 
appeal  to  the  whole  manhood — to  intellect,  feeling  and 
will  equally.     No  doubt,  in  the  narrower  sense,  it  has 
been  associated  with  the  first,  and  is  often  confounded 
with  mental  acuteness.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  depends 
upon  character  rather  than  upon  capacity  and,  for  this 
reason,  might  be  associated  with  will.     But,  whether 
for  will  or  feeling,  deliberation  is  its  antecedent  condition, 
education  its  proper  function.     The  intellectual  reference 
thus  asserts  itself,  and  may  be  left  to  take  care  of  itself,— 
no  dolt  can  achieve  wisdom.     Yet,  if  wisdom  is  to  furnish 
the   means   whereby   one   may   'come   at'   ideal   aims, 
its  educative  function  must  be  free  to  operate  all  round. 
Deliberation,    mediated    by    intelligence,    will    produce 
insight;  mediated  by  feeling,  it  will  issue  in  taste;  me- 
diated by  will,  it  manifests  itself  in  goodness.     And,  to 
its  perfect  work,  wisdom  needs  all  three.     This  universal 
gift  is  rarely,  if  ever,  bestowed. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


29 


One  cannot  question  that  the  Calvinistic  Congre- 
gationalism of  New  England  furnished  the  element  of 
wisdom  in  the  civilization  of  the  folk.  On  the  side  of 
character  the  issue  was  goodness;  on  the  side  of  feeling, 
issue  failed;  on  the  side  of  intellect,  it  settled  down  to  a 
series  of  mysteries  which,  nevertheless,  bore  quite 
definite  suggestions.  God  had  laid  necessity  upon 
these  men,  to  find  in  religion  an  amplitude  of  experience 
denied  them  through  other  channels.  Their  church 
and  its  doctrines  brought  them  into  contact  with  the 
true  system  of  things,  giving  the  average  man  an  educa- 
tion potent  to  elevate  him  to  a  plane  of  very  real  cultiv- 
ation. The  ordinances  of  religion,  preaching  par- 
ticularly, formed  the  exclusive  equivalent  for  the  numerous 
'aids  to  knowledge'  available  now.  The  drama,  the 
lecture,  the  club,  foreign  travel,  the  free  library,  the 
picture  gallery,  the  cheap  classic,  the  proliferant  novel, 
the  museum,  and  the  cinematograph  found  their  sub- 
stitute in  the  sermon.  Till  we  realize  this,  we  realize 
nothing.     Sermons 

"are  the  most  authentic  and  characteristic  revelations  of  the 
mind  of  New  England.  .  .  .  They  represent  an  enormous 
amount  of  subtile,  sustained,  and  sturdy  brain-power.  .  .  . 
are  monuments  of  vast  learning,  and  of  a  stupendous  intel- 
lectual energy  both  in  the  men  who  produced  them  and  in  the 
men  who  listened  to  them.  .  .  .  They  are  superior  to  our 
jests.  We  may  deride  them,  if  we  will;  but  they  are  not 
derided."* 

Of  course,  for  many — a  majority,  may  be, — among 
the  hearers,  the  intellectual  part  of  this  wisdom  was 
provided  vicariously.  In  the  nature  of  the  case,  it  did 
become  traditional  more  or  less.     But,  the  observances 


Tyler,  Ibid.,  p.  192. 


30 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


entailed  by  it,  like  the  attitude  of  mind  produced, 
wrought  tremendously  upon  will  to  the  making  of 
character. 

Family  worship,  the  father  endued  with  the  priesthood 
of  all  true  believers,  prayer  and  biblical  instruction, 
were  everywhere.  Children  came  to  know  the  English 
Bible  by  heart— itself  a  glorious  instrument  of  culture. 
The  Lord's  Day,  set  apart,  brought  a  full  round  of 
appropriate  duties  and  prohibitions,  while  the  mid-week 
Prayer  Meeting  served  as  a  reminder  that  the  sacred 
never  forsook  the  secular.  Constant  contact  with 
noble  thoughts,  however  conventional,  and  a  memory 
filled  with  noble  words,  could  not  be  void  of  effect. 

"What  was  there  in  that  little  mean,  square,  ugly  meeting- 
house that  it  could  so  easily  govern  the  conduct  of  the  com- 
mumty  and  draw  the  tithe  of  their  substance,  that  could  hold 
their  tired  bodies  on  hard  benches  during  four  long  sessions 
and  make  them  thankful  for  the  privilege!  It  was  because, 
humble  and  mean  though  it  might  be,  it  was  the  shrine  of  an 
Ideal  beside  which  substance,  nay  even  life  itself,  is  but  a 
watch  in  the  night."* 

Here  the  ^sinful  creature'  learned  of  his  dread-glad- 
some calling,  as  copartner  with  the  Creator  of  all  things, 
and  knew  himself  for  an  immortal  soul,  destined  to  an 
eternity  before  which  earthly  affairs  shrank  to  mere 
dust  in  the  balance.  Rudeness  there  may  have  been, 
as  we  now  estimate,  but  the  essential  genius  of  the 
Scriptures  was  grafted  on  the  heart  of  the  people,  bestow- 
ing a  dignity  that  we  may  well  envy.  Men  did  enjoy 
wisdom  then,  because,  sure  of  themselves  in  prompt 
judgments,  they  set  right  and  wrong  poles  asunder. 
.Esthetic  taste  had  to  endure  neglect,  intellect  often 

*  When  Folks  was  Folks,  Elizabeth  L.  Blunt,  p.  58. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


31 


wore  itself  out  upon  impossible  notions,  ay,  superstitions. 
Notwithstanding,  custom  and  habit  as  between  man  and 
man  displayed  a  magnificent  stability  always,  sometimes 
exhaled  a  fragrant  sweetness. 

Standing  fast  in  the  old  ways,  the  men  of  real  weight 
had  no  need  to  acquire  virtue;  it  came  to  them  naturally 
through  the  medium  of  immemorial  tradition.  They 
were  convinced — a  matter  of  knowledge — that  they 
possessed  character — a  matter  of  emotion.  Unaware, 
they  evinced  kinship  with  all  great  constructive  epochs. 
Thus,  what  has  been  said  so  admirably  of  the  heroic 
age  of  the  Athenian  state  applies  to  them  most  aptly. 

''The  truth  is  that  knowledge,  as  understood  by  Socrates, 
has  the  closest  possible  relation  to  character.  It  is  a  certain 
overmastering  principle  or  power  that  lays  hold  primarily 
indeed  of  the  intellect,  but  through  the  intellect  of  the  entire 
personality,  moulding  and  disciplining  the  will  and  the 
emotions  into  absolute  unison  with  itself,  a  principle  from 
which  courage,  temperance,  justice  and  every  other  virtue 
inevitably  flow."* 

Accordingly,  the  spirit  of  the  group  ruled  with  uncom- 
promising authority,  because  the  citizen  was  "conscious 
of  being  by  means  of  it  the  instrument  that  serves  the 
divine  working."  Touched  thus  to  high  issues,  repre- 
sentative personalities  held  what  Plato  calls  '  unshakable ' 
convictions  about  right  and  wrong,  whether  moral  or 
intellectual.  Substituting  conduct  of  life  for  'style,' 
Kenan's  account  of  his  own  experience  at  Saint-Sulpice 
describes  the  situation  perfectly. 

*'Sans  le  vouloir,  Saint-Sulpice  ou  Ton  m^prise  la  Htt^rature, 
est  ainsi  une  excellente  ^cole  de  style;  car  la  regie  fondament- 
ale  du  style  est  d'avoir  uniquement  en  vue  la  pens^e  que 
Ton  veut  inculquer,  et  par  consequent  d^ avoir  une  yenseeJ^] 

*  The  Religious  Teachers  of  Greece,  J.  Adam,  p.  229. 
t  Souvenirs  de  Jeunesse,  p.  220. 


32 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


Briefly,  the  particular  case  of  New  England  was  trans- 
muted by  the  operation  of  a  universal  truth,  equally 
potent  in  pagan  Athens,  in  Romanist  Paris,  and  in  the 
English  Puritan  colonies.  Differing  widely  in  form,  the 
social  structure  was  a  structure  because,  in  every  instance, 
the  same  essential  principle  prevailed.  The  great  things, 
as  time  and  sense  measure  magnitude,  w^ere  abased,  or 
exalted,  by  the  admonitions  of  the  still,  small  voice. 

No  doubt  there  were  dark  shadows,  the  deeper  for 
the  very  brightness  of  the  qualities,  and,  thanks  to  them, 
the  new  w^as  bound  to  clash  with  the  old  some  dav. 
Yet,  taken  all  in  all,  it  was  a  heroic  community,  breeding 
so  true  that,  when  the  clash  did  come,  its  sons  and 
daughters  were  condemned  to  rebuild  the  temple  in 
fear  and  trembling,  often  in  dire  bitterness  of  soul. 
For  bereft  of  so  much,  they  did  not  understand  that  no 
such  unity  could  be  created  complete  and  whole  within 
the  brief  span  of  a  single  generation. 

Such,  then,  were  the  form  and  pressure  of  the  folk 
from  whom  Morris  sprang.  The  story  of  his  career 
holds  permanent  interest  in  so  far  as  he  found  himself 
compelled  to  forsake  nigh  all  the  views  on  which  he  had 
been  nurtured  and,  at  heavy  sacrifice,  going  out  into 
the  infinite  alone,  to  think  through  to  a  different  stand- 
point. Like  his  father,  he  was  a  representative  man, 
and  so  his  tale  is  itself  an  epitome  of  many  others  in  his 
age.     He  felt 

''The  Sea  of  Faith,  .  .  . 
Retreating  to  the  breath 
Of  the  night-wind,  down  the  vast  edges  drear 
And  naked  shingles  of  the  world.'' 

But,  even  though  tried  severely  by  this  loss,  he  could 
not  endure  a  "  land  of  dreams,"  having  "  neither  joy  .  .  • 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


33 


nor  certitude  nor  peace."  Thanks  to  the  impress  of  the 
New  England  Home,  the  spiritual  qualities  remained 
the  principal  thing.  And  his  life  work,  cut  off  incom- 
plete at  noon,  alas,  is  the  record  of  a  vital  effort  to  replace 
the  conventional  traditions  or  incomprehensible  mysteries 
of  his  youthful  training  by  intelligible,  defensible  doc- 
trines. He  rejected  formulse  that  had  become  mechan- 
ical, but  he  could  never  reject  the  perennial  problems 
of  human  nature.  He  was  thus  one  of  the  first  in  the 
United  States  to  give  a  new  organic  structure  to  the 
solution  of  the  eternal  questions  which,  as  he  had  been 
early  taught  to  hold,  and  as  he  always  held,  are  ultimately 
the  sole  questions. 


CHAPTER  II 
School  and  College 


(1854-61) 

In  1840,  the  year  of  Morris's  birth,  Norwich  village 
was  the  centre  of  a  township  with  some  2200  inhabitants. 
Emigration   westward   having   set   in,   population   had 
been  on  the  decline  for  a  decade,  and  was  destined  to 
fall  to  1700  by  the  census  of  1860.     The  population  of 
Windsor  county  was  but  40,000,  and  shrinking  slightly. 
The  surroundings,  quaint  to  modern  eyes,  w^ere  thor- 
oughly wholesome,  and  the  community  homogeneous, 
although  the    squire  and  the  deacon  might  entertain 
inimical    sentiments    or    represent    a    social    contrast. 
Roman  Catholics,  foreigners  and  negroes  amounted  to 
curiosities.      A   criminal   class   was   unknown,   and,     I 
suppose,  doors  were  seldom  barred.     Farming  and  fruit- 
growing were  the  principal  occupations.     Potatoes  and 
oats  formed  the  staple  crops;  a  good  deal  of  corn  and 
some  wheat  were  harvested.     Maple  sugar  must  have 
helped  the  balance  in  many  homes.     Sheep  were  by  all 
odds  the  most  important  stock,  and  furnished  a  quantity 
of  wool.     More  than  2000  cattle  grazed  the  fields,  and 
about    1500    swine    were    fed.      The    Ompompanoosic 
River,  a  swift  tributary  of  the  Connecticut,  and  a  smaller 
stream.  Bloody  Brook,  afforded  advantageous  mill  sites. 
Thanks  to  these,  modest  manufacturing  industries  were 
developed,  the  elder  Morris  being  interested  in  several. 
Tanneries,  grist  mills,  saw  mills  and  kilns  supplied  the 
largest  items   on   the   industrial   budget   of  the  State. 

34 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


35 


Still,  home-made  articles  formed  no  less  than  33  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  manufactured  products,  or,  if 
bricks  and  lime — hardly  possible  domestic  industries — 
be  deducted,  42  per  cent.  In  other  words,  the  industrial 
family,  even  farming  aside,  continued  to  perform  a  most 
important  economic  function. 

The  Congregationalists,  the  premier  religious  body, 
had  organized  as  early  as  1770  and,  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  had  built  "the  best  meeting  house  in  the 
State. '*  Not  till  1835  did  the  Baptists  become  suf- 
ficiently strong  to  build,  and  the  Methodists  followed  one 
year  later.  Universalism  was  a  familiar  *  heresy.' 
The  Anglicans,  too,  had  some  foothold.* 
•  The  re-establishment,  in  1836,  by  Captain  Alden 
Partridge,  of  The  American  Literary,  Scientific,  and 
Military  Academy,  under  the  even  more  ambitious 
title  of  Norwich  University,!  appears  to  have  thrust 
an  element  of  disquiet,  if  not  discord,  upon  the  rural 
folk.     Mrs.  Cone  writes, 


in 


The  Partridges  were  a  leading  family  in  Norwich  from  the 
first  settlement  of  the  town.  Captain  Alden  Partridge 
established  Norwich  University  there,  the  well-known 
miHtary  school,  which  was  at  the  height  of  its  prosperity 
when  Sylvester  Morris  moved  to  town;  and  Lewis  Partridge, 
his  nephew,  was  a  prominent  Democrat  in  State  politics,  and 
became  United  States  marshal  under  Buchanan.  The  school 
was  aristocratic  and  Episcopalian,  with  many  pupils  from  the 
South,  and  the  family  led  the  opposition  in  Norwich  which 
wealth  and  social  prestige  everywhere  raised  against  the 
Abolitionists.  Better  examples  of  the  two  classes  in  society, 
which  in  the  North  were  arrayed  against  each  other  in  the 
great  struggle,  could  hardly  have  been  found  than  elegant, 

*  Of.  The  History  of  Vermont,  with  Descriptions  Physical  and  Topo- 
graphical, Rev.  Hosea  Becklej-,  pp.  298  f.  (1846). 

t  Cf.  History  of  Vermont,  Zadock  Thompson,  Part  II,  pp.  168  f.  (1842). 


36 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


self-important  Lewis  Partridge,  whose  very  manners  carried 
weight,  and  our  rough,  hard-handed  AboHtionist  tanner, 
whom  intensity  of  moral  purpose  and  indignation  at  the 
wrongs  of  the  oppressed  inspired." 

Sylvester  ^Morris's 

"temperance  work  brought  him  particularly  into  conflict 
with  the  prerogatives  of  the  University,  in  the  famiUes  of 
whose  instructors  the  old-time  hospitaUty  was  dear,  and 
whose  students  were  accustomed  to  soldierly  convivialities 
and  the  health-drinkings  and  free  liquor  of  pubUc  hoHdays 
and  reviews.  It  was  one  of  the  glories  of  Norwich  in  those 
by-gone  days,  the  parades  of  the  students  on  Fourth  of  July 
celebrations  and  militia  training-days,  when  salutes  were 
fired  between  the  two  great  elms  in  front  of  Captain  Part- 
ridge's house,  and  dinner  and  speeches  ensued,  and  the  health 
of  the  captain  was  drunk.  To  oppose  these  customs,  and 
finally  to  obtain  authority  to  put  an  end  to  the  carousals 
which  followed  them,  roused  the  bitterest  enmity  on  the  part 
of  the  students,  who  spoiled  Deacon  Morris's  garden,  cut 
down  his  trees,  burnt  him  in  effigy  at  Hanover,  and  threatened 
to  burn  him  out."* 

Of  course,  the  controversies,  in  which  Sylvester  Morris 
bore  his  picturesque  part,  had  been  stirring  for  a  decade 
before  the  birth  of  his  son,  George,  and  they  had  passed 
through  important  phases  ere  the  boy  reached  years  of 
discretion.  Garrison's  The  Liberator  \vas  followed, 
after  nine  years,  by  the  Liberty  party  and  the  presid- 
ential candidacy  of  James  G.  Birney,  for  whom  Syl- 
vester Morris  voted— one  of  the  stalwart  319  in  the 
entire  State  of  Vermont.  Another  ten  years  saw  the 
Fugitive  Slave  compromise,  which  old  Morris  denounced 
so  bitterly.  When  the  Kansas  difficulties  came  to  a 
head  George  w^as  a  Junior  at  Dartmouth  College.     In 

*  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Sylvester  Morris,  pp.  25,  29-30.     Norwich 
University  was  removed  to  Xorthfield,  Vt.,  in  1867. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


37 


the  same  way,  the  commotion  caused  by  the  Washington- 
ian  total  abstinence  societies  reached  its  height  so  early 
as  1836-40,  and  temperance  reforms  had  won  their  way 
ere  he  came  to  manhood.  Nevertheless,  these  very 
controversies  served  to  keep  the  traditional  Puritan 
spirit  in  fighting  trim,  and  the  boy  must  have  been 
moved  by  the  spectacle.  In  short,  he  w^as  raised  amidst 
the  influences  depicted  by  the  ingenuous  Rev.  Hosea 
Beckley. 

"The  truths  of  the  gospel  were  circulated  in  their  native 
simplicity  and  power;  and  these  truths  found  reverential 
hearers  .  .  .  respecting  the  heralds  of  the  cross  for  their 
works'  sake.  This  is  evident  from  the  records  of  some  of 
their  pubHc  proceedings,  and  acts  of  the  rulers  in  those  times. 
The  language  of  reverence  to  God  and  his  word  is  seen  in 
many  of  their  political  acts  and  resolutions.  .  .  .  The 
moral  and  religious  feelings  and  habits  and  acts  of  this  people, 
is  the  brightest  trait  in  their  character.  In  this  respect  much 
indeed  remains  to  be  done;  many  'crooked  paths  to  be  made 
straight  and  rough  places  smooth.'  But  many  heralds  of 
divine  message  and  knowledge  have  'run  to  and  fro'  these 
hills  and  valHes  and  on  these  mountains,  pubhshing  peace 
and  salvation,  carrying  glad  tidings  of  good.  .  .  .  Girded  with 
the  armour  of  light  may  they  long  continue  to  be  polished 
shafts  in  the  quiver  of  the  Lord,  till  this  whole  state  become 
'  a  mountain  of  hoHness  and  a  dwelling  place  of  righteousness."'* 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Morris  household  preserved 
intact  the  the  essential  spirit  of  New  England  Puritanism 
beyond  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  So,  in 
his  tender  years,  George  absorbed  its  temper,  was  im- 
mersed literally  in  its  influence.  He  passed  through 
the  district  school  in  due  course.  But,  his  mother's 
"inherited  love  of  culture  and  beauty,''  well  assorted 
in  one  respect  with  his  father's  religiosity,  led  to  a  depart- 

*  History  of  Vermont,  pp.  283-86. 


38 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


39 


ure  from  Calvinistic  neglect  of  the  aesthetic  sense. 
The  family  loved  music  and,  guided  farther  by  the  taste 
of  the  third  daughter,  Lucy,  the  lad  obtained  some 
musical  education.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that, 
although  the  Puritan  turned  his  back  upon  the  arts, 
as  "the  devil's  frippery  and  seduction,"  he  could  not 
dismiss  music  utterly.  Secular  music  he  may  have 
banned,  he  must  needs  sing  in  meeting  and  family 
worship.  And  if  his  music,  like  his  rhymed  psalms,* 
were  quaint,  it  partook  in  many  of  the  characteristics 
of  folk  song.  While  it  excluded  the  sublime  and  dainty- 
things  of  composition,  it  nevertheless  gave  expression 
to  strong  human  emotion,  and  possessed  a  certain  inevit- 
ableness,  just  like  the  'auld  Scotch  sangs.'  Indeed,  it 
ran  parallel  to  the  ballad  in  poetry.  A  people  face  to 
face  with  continuous  warfare,  or  preparedness  for 
fight,  cannot  but  break  into  rough  ballads.  Crude 
specimens  of  poetic  art  they  doubtless  are,  but  they 
lend  form  to  vital  incidents.  Similarly,  the  tunes  set 
to  'psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs'  performed  a 
function  for  the  religious  life.  Accordingly,  it  is  nowise 
surprising  to  learn  that  although  George  Morris 

"was  largely  self-taught  in  music,  important  contributory 
assistance  must  have  been  derived  from  the  musical  taste  of 
his  family  in  general,  and  from  his  sister  Lucy  in  particular. 
They  were  all  singers,  father  and  mother,  uncles  and  aunts, 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  even  I  can  remember  their  singing 
together  at  family  reunions,  and  on  Sunday  evenings  and  at 
family  prayers.  Sylvester  Morris  had  a  big  bass  voice,  and 
certain  hymns  will  always  have  the  association  for  me  of  his 
reUsh  in  singing  them,  roUing  them  out  with  his  head  thrown 
back.  The  singing  was  mainly  of  hymns  and  anthems, 
derived  from  the  tunes  used  in  the  singing-books  of  the  day, 

*  Of.  The  Bay  Psalm  Book. 


4 


and  a  tuning-fork  was  used  to  get  the  pitch;  but  I  think  the 
more  popular  secular  songs  of  the  day,  such  as  were  found  in 
collections,  were  also  famihar  in  the  family.  Lucy  was 
George's  next  older  sister,  and  they  were  near  to  each  other, 
not  merely  in  age,  but  in  taste  and  temperament.  She  was 
passionately  intellectual  and  musical.  A  piano  came  into 
the  house  about  the  time,  I  fancy,  when  she  was  able  to  use 
it,  and  whatever  instruction  she  had  must  have  passed  on  to 
him.  ...  At  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt.,  where  she  taught  school, 
she  studied  music  with  Mr.  Charles  Dana,  a  bUnd  music- 
teacher,  of  much  local  reputation While  George  was  a 

tutor  at  Dartmouth  before  he  went  to  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  he  used  to  instruct  his  nieces  (my  cousin  Susan 
Kellogg  and  myself)  in  music,  and  always  took  much  interest 
in  what  we  played,  supplying  us  with  music.  My  earliest 
recollection  of  him  is  as  playing  the  piano,  and  in  a  manner 
which  thrilled  and  educated  us  all.     George's  music  was  one 

of  the  joys  of  my  father's  Hfe His  beautiful  music 

was  a  joy  to  us  all.  He  would  play  by  the  hour,  completely 
expressing  himself  through  that  medium  in  a  sympathetic 
environment."* 

It  is  evident  then  that,  from  boyhood,  Morris  was 
familiar  with  one  approved  art  that  might  very  easily 
lead  to  the  realms  of  a  culture  unheeded  by  ascetic 
Puritanism. 

From  the  Norwich  district  school  he  passed  to  Kimball 
Union  Academy  (founded,  1813),  Meriden,  New  Hamp- 
shire, where  he  was  prepared  for  Dartmouth  College. 
Mr.  H.  C.  Morrison,  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction  in  New  Hampshire,  has  been  good  enough 
to  give  me  the  following  information. 

''Kimball  Union  has  been  steadily,  from  Professor  Morris's 
time,  one  of  our  most  effective  and  useful  institutions,  and  it 
probably  never  has  been  so  prosperous  in  its  history  as  it  is  at 
present.     At  the  present  time  it  is  going  through  a  process 

*  Letters  from  Mrs.  Cone. 


40 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


41 


of  adjustment  to  changing  community  needs,  and  while  it 
will  continue  to  give  a  classical  curriculum  leading  to  college, 
it  will  also,  beginning  with  the  present  academic  year  (1913- 
14),  offer  well-grounded  curricula  in  household  arts  and  in 
agriculture.  It  has  recently  come  into  possession  of  a  rather 
extensive  farm  which  can  be  operated  in  connection  with  the 
school,  and  its  opportunities  in  the  direction  of  sound  educa- 
tion leading  to  the  life  work  of  home  makers  are  unrivaled. 
The  newer  work  will  be  under  the  direction  of  specially 
trained  teachers  and  I  look  forward  confidently  to  a  period  of 
greatly  increased  usefulness,  without  in  any  way  detracting 
from  the  traditional  work  of  the  school;  and  I  hope  that  the 
ancient  traditions  of  plain  living  and  high  thinking  will  be 
enhanced  rather  than  otherwise." 

Intimate  recollections  of  Meriden  school  days,  such 
as  Morris  alone  could  have  given,  fail  us.  But,  thanks 
to  Mrs.  Cone,  a  number  of  illuminating  details  are 
available. 

*' George  Morris  entered  Kimball  Union  Academy  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fall  term,  1854,  three  months  before  his 
fourteenth  birthday.  He  was  the  last  of  his  famuly  to  leave 
home.  Susan  was  married  and  in  Illinois,  where  her  husband, 
E.  B.  Kellogg,  had  charge  of  the  construction  of  the  P.  and 
0.  R.  R.  Edward  was  with  his  brother-in-law  in  Illinois, 
a  civil  engineer.  Ephraim  was  at  Hartford,  Vt.,  beginning 
the  development  of  the  water-power  there  with  his  father — 
S.  Morris  and  Son.  Lucy  had  been  for  two  years  at  Mt. 
Holyoke  Seminary  and  was  a  teacher.  For  George  to  enter 
Kimball  Union  Academy  as  a  college  preparatory  student 
was  a  new  departure  in  the  family.  Edward  and  Ephraim, 
and  their  brother-in-law  Kellogg,  had  been  educated  at 
Norwich  University,  General  Partridge's  military  and 
engineering  school.  George  early  showed  an  aptitude  for 
study  and  music  and,  we  surmise,  was  further  influenced  by 
his  father's  growing  disaffection  toward  the  authorities  of  the 
University  (on  the  Mexican  war,  slavery  and  temperance), 
by  his  mother's  desire  to  have  one  son  a  minister,  and  by  his 
sister  Lucy's  intellectual  tastes  and  force.     She  was  George's 


mate  in  the  family,  five  years  his  senior,  musical,  a  brilliant 
scholar,  but  fretted  by  the  limitations  then  imposed  upon  her 
sex.  George  could  do  what  she  was  prevented  from  doing, 
and  as  one  opportunity  after  another  opened  before  him,  she 
entered  into  his  development  and  had  faith  in  his  ambitions 
as  though  they  had  been  her  own.  She  died,  alasl  of  a  long 
and  painful  illness  (tuberculosis)  just  before  he  received  his 
first  appointment  at  Ann  Arbor. 

*'  In  1854  the  Academy  at  Meriden  was  one  of  the  best  of  its 
kind  in  New  England.     Cyrus  S.  Richards  was  Principal, 
and  in  the  middle  of  his  long  term  of  office,  thirty-six  years. 
The  average  number  of  pupils  during  that  period  was  two 
hundred,  and  there  were  often  over  three  hundred.     The 
school  had  been  founded  to  help  Christian  young  men,  poor 
and  promising,  to  fit  for  the  ministry.     Dr.  Richards  himself 
represented  a  type  of  student  well  known  there,— a  poor  boy, 
from  a  Vermont  hill-farm,  possessed  of  the  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge and  an  ambition  to  become  a  minister;  working  his  way 
through  Kimball  Union  Academy  and  Dartmouth  by  teach- 
ing school.     He  was  made  principal  the  day  that  he  grad- 
uated from  college  and,  though  afterwards  ordained,  made 
teaching  his  life  work.     Under  him  the  school  became  widely 
known  for  its  strict  discipline,  its  high  moral  and  religious 
tone,  and  the  excellence  of  its  preparation  for  college.    '  Power- 
ful and  precious  revivals   of  rehgion'   were  frequent,   and 
'converted  at  Meriden'  could  be  said  of  very  many  of  its 

pupils. 

"  Then,  as  now,  the  Academy  stood  on  a  hill-top  in  a  remote 
New  England  village,  on  the  east  side  of  a  sloping  green, 
around  which  were  situated  the  Congregational  church, 
certain  dwelling  houses  and  dormitories,  and  the  village 
tavern.  There  is  a  fine  view  to  be  obtained  of  Ascutney 
Mountain  to  the  south-west  and  Croydon  Mountain  to  the 
east,  but  for  the  most  part  the  place  is  bleak  and  windy,  and 
bitter  cold  in  winter.  The  Academy  building  was  of  brick, 
with  a  white  wooden  belfry.  On  the  first  floor  of  the  main 
building  was  the  Chapel,  furnished  with  stationary  wooden 
seats  descending  to  the  teachers'  platform.  On  the  second 
story,  and  in  the  ell,  were  the  recitation  rooms,  likewise 


42 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK  OF 


furnished  with  wooden  seats  and  desks,  elevated  in  the  rear. 
The  students  hved  in  near-by  dormitories  and  in  private 
houses.  Many  worked  for  their  board  or  boarded  them- 
selves. Its  lonesome  situation,  its  meagre  appliances,  and 
the  stern  and  self-denying  character  of  its  principal  imparted 
to  the  school  an  air  of  austerity.  Yet  the  life  was  not  without 
spice.  The  rules  were  so  strict  that  many  an  adventurous 
youngster  proved  his  mettle  by  breaking  them.  The  boys 
and  girls,  forbidden  almost  to  look  at  one  another,  did  some- 
times fall  in  love.  And  there  was  the  eternal  charm  of  youth 
at  its  most  impressionable  period,  hard  at  work. 

"  George  Morris,  candidate  for  this  New  Hampshire  abode 
of  the  Muses,  probably  traversed  the  fifteen  miles  between 
Norwich  and  Meriden  sitting  beside  his  father,  in  the  high, 
side-spring  express  wagon,  drawn  by  Sukey,  the  staunch 
white  Morgan  mare.  Loaded  behind  were  his  trunk  and  the 
necessary  furniture  of  a  school-boy's  room,  and,  no  doubt,  a 
pail  of  Mother's  doughnuts  and  cookies.  On  the  road  would 
be  other  wagons  similarly  loaded,  and  when  they  reached 
Meriden,  the  place  would  be  lively  with  the  horses  and 
vehicles  necessary  to  transport  three  hundred  boj^s  and  girls. 
Apparently  George  conformed  to  the  genius  of  the  place, 
finding  it  very  like  what  ruled  in  his  own  home,  and  received 
no  challenge  except  to  do  his  best  in  his  studies.  Dr.  Rich- 
ards taught  Latin,  and  in  both  Latin  and  Greek  the  boy  got 
the  thorough  start  which  made  him  excel  as  a  classical 
scholar  at  college.  .  .  . 

"  Just  before  his  return  to  Meriden  for  his  senior  year,  he 
united  with  the  Norwich  Congregational  Church;  ''received 
into  full  membership,"  the  records  say;  and  we  are  led  thereby 
to  infer  that  the  previous  winter  there  had  been  a  season  of 
religious  interest  at  Meriden.  Perhaps  some  evangelist  had 
been  there,  and  there  had  been  meetings  either  in  the  Con- 
gregational Church  on  the  summit  or  at  the  Baptist  Church 
at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  to  which  the  students,  under  the  stars 
in  the  snapping  cold,  over  the  glittering  snow,  had  flocked  in 
numbers.  That  George,  at  fifteen,  should  take  the  moment- 
ous stand,  urged  by  the  arts  of  the  preacher,  the  prayers  of 
his  teachers,  and  the  example  of  his  fellow  students,  was  very 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


43 


natural.     He  had  been  bred  to  it  by  his  pious  parents  whom 
he  loved,  and  he  was  temperamentally  religious. 

''  He  graduated  in  July,  1857,  in  a  class  which,  as  the  Alumni 
Register  implies,  numbered  fifty-four.     Did  all  have  leading 
parts?     Did  George,  for  his  scholarship,  have  a  leading  part? 
Commencement  Day  at  Meriden  was  second  only  in  import- 
ance to  Commencement  Day  at  Dartmouth  as  a  literary  and 
social  event  in  the  region.     People  came  from  far  and  near 
as  they  come  now  on  circus  day,  only  they  were  of  the  native- 
born,  and,  for  all  their  queer  costumes  and  vehicles,  had  a 
nice  taste  for  youthful  oratory,  and  desired  more  of  it  than 
we  do.     The  crowded  green,  the  packed  church,  the  platform, 
the  dignitaries,  the  class,  the  speaking,  the  valedictory,  the 
giving  of  diplomas,  and  the  July  heat,— George  probably 
went  through  it  all  as  other  boys  had  done,  and  drove  home 
with  his  belongings  and  his  diploma,  feeling  as  though  the 
first  milestone  was  passed." 

A  dozen  themes,  or  essays  in  little,  written  by  Morris 
for  class  debating  societies  or  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
English   instruction,   survive  from   this   period.    They 
treat  moral,  social  or  political  topics,  and  their  titles, 
redolent  of  the  atmosphere,  are  suggestive :— the  Cultiv- 
ation of  the  Mind;  the  Poiver  of  Habit;    the  Advantages 
of  Early  Rising;  Description  of  a  New  Year's  Eve;  Con- 
tention   benefits    neither    Party;    Patriotism;    Trust    not 
Appearances;  Are  the  conflicting  Interests  of  the  different 
Parties  of  the  Republic  compatible  with  the  Preservation 
of  the  Republic?  and  so  forth.     While  the  MSS.  show 
neat  penmanship,  correct,  though  stiff  and  sometimes 
archaic  diction,  and  painstaking  care,— there  is  not  a 
single  erasure,— they  reveal  the  influences  that  played 
upon  the  boy  rather  than  aught  drawn  from  his  own 
mind.    The  tone  is  distinctly  pietistic,  if  not  theological ; 
constant  are  the  appeals  to  God,  conscience  and  duty. 
Webster,  cited  several  times  in  the  phrase,  "according 


44 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


to  Webster,"  is  a  final  authority;  and  we  are  told,  with 
similar  no/ixete,  that  one  of  the  signal  advantages  of 
early  rising  is,  that  a  man  "  will  not  be  obliged  to  prolong 
his  labour  into  hours  when  honest  people  are  generally 
asleep."  The  moral,  religious  and  social  subjects  are 
approached  with  ingenuous  primness,  but  there  is  not 
the  remotest  trace  of  priggishness.  The  political 
exercises  serve  to  tell  that  his  father's  doctrines  had 
struck  home.  George  thought  that  the  Republic  was 
bound  to  go  to  pieces,  and, — he  adduces  his  reasons. 

*'But  there  is  an  aristocracy  at  the  South  consisting  of  the 
rich  portion  of  the  slave-holders,  which  controls,  as  it  were, 
the  whole  movement  of  the  wheels  of  government,  disre- 
garding laws  and  everything  which  oppose  them.  Now  the 
existence  of  such  a  body  cannot  but  be  fatal  to  the  existence 
of  a  RepubUcan  form  of  government  and  favourable  to  the 
estabhshment  of  an  aristocratic  one"  (autumn  of  1856). 

New  England  had  an  easy  way  with  slave-holders ! 

We  still  have  the  printed  programme  of  the  Senior 
Exhibition  at  Kimball  Union,  on  6th  May,  1857.  This 
must  have  been  a  tremendous  orgy  for  the  audience. 
No  less  than  twenty-three  senior  boys,  in  the  alphabetical 
order  of  their  surnames,  read  *  orations.'  Mercifully, 
the  "young  ladies,"  sixteen  in  number,  had  to  rest 
content  with  the  appearance  of  their  names  in  the  glory 
of  print,  and  with  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  one 
of  their  fair  band.  Miss  Emily  S.  Kent,  of  New  Alstead, 
N.  H.,  was  the  composer  of  the  *' Closing  Song  of  the 
Class,"  sung  at  the  end  of  this  gigantic  performance. 
Two  of  the  addresses  are  worth  record,  on  account  of 
their  authors: — "Administrative  Example  of  the  United 
States,"  by  William  J.  Tucker,  afterwards  the  distin- 
guished President  of   Dartmouth  College;    and  "The 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


45 


World  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  by  Morris.  The  latter  lies 
before  me.  Like  the  other,  and  much  shorter  essays, 
it  is  quite  conventional.  Rather  blurred  in  its  historical 
perspective  ("the  Middle  Ages  immediately  succeed 
the  advent  of  Christianity"),  it  takes  a  characteristically 
Protestant  attitude,— quite  unconsciously,  for,  of  course, 
there  is  no  other,— and,  in  the  compass  of  a  brief  five 
minutes  reaches  the  beginning  of  the  peroration. 

''In  this  manner  we  behold  God  dethroned  in  the  human 
heart  and  men  placed  in  his  stead  .  .  .  preparing  the  way  for 
that  great  moral  Reformation  which  ultimately  raised  all 
Europe  from  subjection  to  priestly  tyrants  and  impostors 
into  the  glorious  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ." 

It  is  quite  plain  that  Morris  received  a  sound  training 
in  direct  preparation  for  college.     In  classics,  in  mathe- 
matics and  in  EngUsh,  he  had  capital  grounding.     His 
instruction     was     admirable.     "Qnt—educationf     It    is 
equally  plain  that  all  the  larger  issues  of  life,  the  material 
for  true  education,  continued  in  control  of  the  norms 
derived  from  the  New  England  home.     The  boy  was 
not  induced,  probably  not  encouraged,  to  think.     And 
the  idea  that  religious,  theological,  moral,  social  and 
historical  problems  are  susceptible  of  objective  evidence 
did   not   so   much  as  occur  to   him.     Kimball   Union 
helped  him  to  assemble  his  tools,  but  how  to  use  them— 
this  lay  altogether  beyond  its  horizon.     The  intellect 
was  kept  in  leading  strings  to  moral  and  religious  dis- 
cipline.   The  feelings  in  which  action  finds  its  springs 
underwent  no  change,  and  the  youth  passed  to  college, 
judging  as  he  had  judged  when  he  first  left  the  family 
hearth.     His  Puritan  culture  stood  its  ground. 

Morris  entered  Dartmouth  College  in  the  autumn  of 
1857.     There  were  249  undergraduates  that  year,  and 


46 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


the  Freshman  class  numbered  60,  of  whom,  with  the 
exception  of  Sidney  Augustus  Merriam,  Morris  was  the 
youngest.  President  Nathan  Lord  was  entering  upon 
the  final  stage  of  his  long  administration  of  thirty-seven 
years  (1828-63).  Under  his  wise  guidance,  Dartmouth, 
its  troubles  past,  laid  the  foundations  of  its  success  ever 
since. 

''Might  not  President  Lord,  at  the  time  of  his  resignation, 
have  said  without  a  shadow  of  boasting.  .  .  I  found  it  truly 
'a  small  college';  it  was  in  an  humble  condition;  its  classes 
were  small;  its  finances  embarrassed;  its  buildings  in  a  dilapid- 
ated and  ruinous  condition.  I  left  it  one  of  the  leading 
institutions  of  the  land."* 

But  he  had  already  published  his  two  Letters  to  Min- 
isters of  the  Gospel  of  all  Denominations  on  Slavery 
(1854-5),  in  which  he  defended  this  institution  on 
*  Biblical '  grounds.  These,  and  his  attitude  towards  the 
Union  later,  during  the  Civil  war,  brought  him  into 
conflict  with  the  Trustees  of  the  College  and  with  public 
opinion.  He  resigned  in  1863,  protesting  against  the 
right  of  the  Trustees 

''  To  impose  any  religious,  ethical,  or  political  test  upon  any 
member  of  their  own  body  or  any  member  of  the  College 
Faculty,  beyond  what  is  recognized  by  the  Charter  of  the 
institution,  or  express  statutes  or  stipulations  conformed  to 
that  instrument,  however  urged  or  suggested,  directly  or 
indirectly,  by  individuals  or  public  bodies  assuming  to  be  as 
visitors  of  the  college,  or  advisers  of  the  Trustees.  .  .  .  The 
action  of  the  Trustees  virtually  imposes  such  a  test,  inasmuch 
as  it  implicitly  represents  and  censures  me  as  having  become 
injurious  to  the  college,  not  on  account  of  any  official  mal- 
feasance or  delinquency,  .  .  .  but,  for  my  opinions  and 
publications  on  questions  of  BibUcal  ethics  and  interpretation, 
which  are  supposed  by  the  Trustees  to  bear  unfavourably 

*  The  History  of  Dartmouth  College,  Baxter  Perry  Smith,  p.  167. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


47 


upon  one  branch  of  the  poHcy  pursued  by  the  present  ad- 
ministration of  the  government  of  the  country"  (Julv  24 
1863).*  V      ^       » 

The  origin  of  this  caiise  celebre— for  such  it  came  to 
be  in  the  New  England  of  these  days— was  the  only 
feature  that  disturbed  the  even  tenor  of  academic  life 
during  Morris's  course.  And,  as  we  have  seen,  the  lad 
had  been  too  firmly  grounded  in  Abolitionist  principles 
to  be  affected. 

The   matriculation   requirements    cannot   have   pre- 
sented serious  difficulty  to  Morris,  who  was  an  excellent 
classical  scholar  of  the  old  literary  type.     They  were 
thoroughly  sound,  comprising  five  books  of  Xenophon 
and  three  of  Homer,  together  with  grammar  and  prosody; 
the  whole  of  Virgil,  select  Orations  of  Cicero,  and  Sallust, 
with  grammar,  prosody  and  prose  composition;  arith- 
metic, and  algebra  through  equations  of  the  first  degree; 
English  grammar,  and  ancient  and  modern  geography. 
The  academic  year  was  divided   into  four  terms,  and 
the  course  of  study  prescribed.     Freshmen  took  Greek, 
Latin  and  mathematics  for  three  terms;  physics,  French 
and    rhetoric    for    one    term.     Sophomores    also    took 
Greek,  Latin  and  mathematics  for  three  terms;  French, 
philosophy  and  physics  for  one  term.     Juniors  continued 
Greek  and  Latin  for  three  terms,  reading  Demosthenes, 
and    Plato's   Phaedo   or    Gorgias,    Cicero's   J)e   Officiis, 
Juvenal,  and  the  CajMvi  of  Plautus;  three  terms  were 
now  devoted  to  philosophy,  also  to  rhetoric  and  physics; 
two  terms  to  French,  and  one  term  to  history.     Seniors 
read  philosophy  in  all  four  terms;  rhetoric  and  physics 
in  three;  history  in  two;  French  and  physiology  in  one. 
Public  Examinations  occurred  twice  a  year,  at  the  close 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  174-5. 


I 


48 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


49 


^ 


of  the  Autumn  Term  and,  in  summer,  just  before  Com- 
mencement, Public  Examiners  being  appointed  to  assist 
the  Faculty. 

In  view  of  Morris's  distinction  later,  it  is  interesting 
to  notice  the  character  of  the  philosophical  and  rhetorical 
instruction,  so  far  as  the  textbooks  afford  indications. 
Sophomores  began  with  Paley's  Evidences  and  Campbell's 
Rhetoric.  Juniors  passed  on  to  Whately's  Logic,  But- 
ler's Ethical  Discourses;  Evidences  of  Christianity;  and 
Whately's  Rhetoric.  Seniors  attacked  Reid's  Intellectual 
Powers,  Edwards  On  the  Will,  Schlegel's  Dramatic  Art 
and  Literature,  Say's  Political  Economy,  Butler's  Analogy, 
and  The  Federalist.  Ere  Morris  reached  these  stages, 
Haven's  Mental  Philosophy  had  displaced  Paley,  and 
Trench's  English  Language  had  been  added  to  the  list. 

No  change  of  real  importance  disturbed  the  staff 
from  1857-61.  The  Class  of  '61,  too,  held  together  well, 
more  than  71  per  cent,  of  the  Freshmen  appear  on  the 
Senior  roll.  In  all  essential  respects,  then,  the  College 
appears  to  have  been  singularly  homogeneous— the 
'  Dartmouth  style '  was  already  a  fact.  And  the  question 
arises.  What  was  the  effect  upon  Morris?  Thanks  to 
the  first-hand  information  supplied  by  President  Tucker, 
his  classmate  at  Kimball  Union  Academy  and  Dart- 
mouth successively,  a  close  friend  moreover,  and  to  the 
personal  recollections  of  Mrs.  Cone,  I  think  we  are  com- 
pelled to  reply,  little,  if  any.  That  is  to  say,  the  nurture 
of  the  home  remained  paramount,  nothing  given  by  the 
College  antagonized  it.  Dr.  Tucker  and  Mrs.  Cone 
agree  very  nearly  in  their  judgments,  which  have  been 
given  quite  independently. 

Dr.  Tucker's  letter  from  Hanover,  the  seat  of  Dart- 
mouth College,  of  date  January  12th,  1912,  is  as  follows: 


''You  ask  me  as  a  class-mate  of  George  S.  Morris  at  Dart- 
mouth, what  there  was  in  the  college  of  his  time  to  direct  his 
mind  toward  philosophy.  I  think  that  the  directive  in- 
fluences which  set  that  way  were  at  work  back  of  the  college. 
He  had,  to  begin  with,  a  remarkably  truth-loving  mind,  and 
the  quiet  but  sure  courage  to  meet  its  demands.  Then  the 
family  influences  were  strongly,  though  indirectly,  at  work 
to  this  end.  His  home  was  inteUigently  rehgious,  and  was 
dominated  by  the  one  great  morality  of  the  time— the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment.  Had  Morris  gone  into  the  ministry,  as 
was  proposed,  I  do  not  know  whether  he  would  have  swung 
toward  the  ethical  or  the  theological  side.  In  either  event, 
he  would  have  put  his  truth-loving  mind  into  action  without 
fear  of  consequence. 

''Professor  Clement  Long  held  the  Chair  of  'Intellectual 
Philosophy   and   PoHtical   Economy'    while   Morris   was   in 
college,  and  the  text  books  in  use  in  the  department  were 
Whately's  'Logic,'  Reid  on  the  Intellectual  Powers,  Edwards 
on  the  Will,  Butler's  'Analogy,'  and  also,  'Ethical  Discourses,' 
Say's  'Political  Economy,'  and  'The  Federahst'— a  pretty 
strong  diet  for  a  boy  of  twenty,  and  not  in  any  way  weak- 
ened by  instructions  from  the  chair.     The  stimulus  from 
Professor  Long  was  that  of  a  perfectly  lucid  mind  governed 
by    inflexible    logic.     There    were    no    evasions    or    mental 
excursions  in  his  class  room.     What  was  the  fact  and,  if 
outside  the  realm  of  natural  things,  what  was  the  truth,  was 
the  question  in  many  forms  which  a  class  had  to  face  before 
him  for  an  hour  a  day.     Of  a  different  type  of  mind,  Professor 
Putnam,  in  the  Chair  of  Greek,  was  equally  stimulating, 
and  perhaps  responsible  more  than  any  other  instructor  for 
the  fineness  of  Morris's  scholarship. 

"Owing  to  his  residence  at  home  during  his  college  course, 
and  also  in  part  to  his  temperament,  Morris  did  not  share  as 
much  as  some  others  in  the  give  and  take  of  college  life. 
College  did  not  call  him  out  before  his  time.  He  was  the 
first  scholar  in  his  class,  but  not  a  speaker;  and  yet  I  was  not 
surprised,  when  some  years  later  he  spent  a  little  time  with 
me  in  New  York  on  his  way  to  and  from  Johns  Hopkins  for 
his  first  course  of  Lectures,  to  find  that  he  threw  away  his 
5 


4  1 


50 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


51 


preparation  in  manuscript,  and  spoke  with  entire  confidence 
and  self-possession  out  of  the  fulness  of  his  subject. 

"I  would  not  attribute  overmuch  in  the  estimate  of  Pro- 
fessor Morris'  mental  training  to  his  college  course,  but  I  am 
quite  sure  that  it  did  nothing  to  deflect  the  natural  straight- 
forwardness of  his  mind,  but  made  rather  to  confirm  its 
original  bent,  and  to  urge  it  on  its  way  toward  the  truth." 

Mrs.  Cone,  on  her  part,  comments  thus: 

*'From  his  mother  George  is  credited  with  inheriting  his 
literary  gifts.  Susanna  Weston's  father  had  been  educated 
as  a  lawyer,  and  was  'Squire'  Weston  at  Randolph.  Her 
brother  Edmund  was  a  college  graduate  and  a  lawyer.  Her 
uncle  Azel  on  her  mother's  side  (Washburn),  graduated  at 
Dartmouth  and  was  a  minister,  and  her  sister  Lucy  and 
cousin  Lucia  both  married  ministers.  She  herself  had 
sesthetic  and  intellectual  tastes  to  a  marked  degree,  and  was 
deeply  religious.  The  Morrises,  one  generation  after  another, 
were  farmers,  tanners,  and  men  of  affairs,  pioneers,  selectmen, 
deacons.  George  was  the  first  of  them,  certainly  in  the 
direct  line,  to  go  to  college. 

''During  his  college  years  George  lived  for  the  most  part 
at  home,  walking  twice  daily  the  mile  between  Norwich  and 
Hanover.  Nathan  Lord  had  long  been  President.  It  is 
said  that  'probably  the  distinguishing  marks  of  the  Dart- 
mouth type  of  man  were  received  from  him  more  than  from 
any  other  source.'  He  was  a  strict  disciplinarian,  at  a  period 
when  the  discipline  was  largely  personal,  and  he  commanded 
respect  and  admiration.  Testimony  from  outside  the  college 
says  that  he  w^as  an  excellent  judge  of  horses.  His  defection 
from  the  anti-slavery  ranks  placed  him  in  opposition  to  the 
Trustees  of  the  College  and  the  Congregational  Churches  of 
the  State.  Sylvester  Morris  used  to  say  that,  inexpHcable 
as  the  step  seemed,  it  taught  him  charity,  for  he  knew  Dr. 
Lord  for  a  good  man. 

"Of  the  professors,  Clement  Long,  as  professor  of  Intellect- 
ual Science  and  Political  Economy,  had  much  influence  on 
his  pupils,  and  great  strength  as  an  exact  thinker.  He  was 
very  tall  and  thin  and  had  a  high  voice.     'You  don't  happen 


to  remember  what  the  author  says  on  that  point?'  was  a 
favourite  method  of  address  with  him.  Prof.  Putnam  taught 
Greek.  He  was  a  charming  scholar,  a  very  handsome  man 
of  a  spiritual  type,  and  possessed  of  a  fine  sense  of  humour.  It 
is  remembered  of  him  that,  on  a  Sunday  evening,  he  excused 
himself  from  guests  in  order  to  go  to  prayer-meeting,  saying 
that  he  must  now  go  and  'suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of 
God  for  a  season.' 

"George  Morris  was  the  youngest  in  his  class  save  one 
(Merriam,  b.  11  March,  1841),  and  its  first  scholar.  While 
immature  in  some  ways,  he  was  not  immature  in  mind, 
showing  a  capacity  to  adjust  his  mind  to  almost  any  require- 
ment. An  examination  of  the  records  shows  a  remarkable 
evenness  of  marks  in  all  his  studies,  though  he  was  a  specially 
good  Greek  scholar. 

"He  was  the  first  man  in  his  class  to  be  elected  to  the  Psi 
Upsilon  Fraternity.     In  ordinary  affairs  he  was  reticent,  a 
quiet  fellow.     In  recitation  he  was  easy.     Because  of  his 
living  at  home,  he  was  at  first  little  known,  but  when  the 
class  began  to  be  aware  of  itself,  his  ability  was  recognised. 
During  his  senior  year  he  had  a  room  at  the  Observatory. 
As  the  end  of  the  course  drew  near,  the  Faculty  decreed  that, 
with  the  Class  of  '61,  the  so-called  Senior  Vacation,  of  two 
weeks    before    Commencement,    should    cease.     The    class 
voted  to  observe  the  custom  as  usual,  and  cut  to  a  man,  all 
except  George  Morris,  who  attended  every  recitation— alone! 
The  Faculty  were  amused  at  his  quiet  pluck,  and  did  not 
discipline  the  class,  and  the  class  respected  him.     At  Com- 
mencement, although  his  rank  was  undoubted,  he  was  not 
given  the  part  allotted  to  the  best  scholar.     Daniel  Xoyes 
received  the  Valedictory.     George  Morris  was  Salutatorian. 
•It  has  been  remembered  in  the  family  that  the  class  and  the 
audience   greeted   him    with   marked    applause,    and    when 
Noyes's  turn   came   remained   silent.     The   graduation   oc- 
curred in  July,  1861.     George  was  twenty." 

It  is  thus  evident  that  Dartmouth,  like  Kimball 
Union  Academy,  effected  no  transformation  of  the 
fundamental  judgments  that  constituted  Morris's  Welt- 


52 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


53 


i 


V 


anschauung.  The  account  given,  by  his  later  friend, 
Edward  Caird,  of  Principal  John  Caird's  undergraduate 
life  at  the  University  of  Glasgow  (1840-4)  fits  the  case 
precisely. 

**He  had  been  brought  up  in  a  circle  into  which  any  idea 
of  scepticism  as  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith  had 
hardly  entered;  and  his  philosophical  studies,  which  were  at 
that  time  mainly  in  writers  like  Reid  and  Stewart,  while 
they  exercised  his  powers,  were  not  such  as  to  affect  his 
intellectual  or  moral  life  very  deeply."* 

Thanks  to  "  the  pretty  strong  diet  for  a  boy  of  twenty,'* 
as  Dr.  Tucker  calls  it,  Morris  may  have  thought  during 
these  years,  though  along  prescribed  lines;  he  received 
no  stimulus  to  rethink. 

This  inference  is  confirmed  by  exercises,  essays  and 
verses  which  have  been  preserved  from  Dartmouth  days. 
Significantly  enough,  the  earliest,  read  at  the  Theological 
Society,  on  6th  November,  1857,  is  a  discussion  of  the 
text,  "The  serpent  beguiled  me,  and  I  did  eat."  The 
lad  evidently  thinks  that  he  has  a  historical  incident 
before  him — "an  account  of  a  temptation  yielded  to, 
which  caused  that  a  world  before  unknown  to  anything 
but  holiness  should  become  *full  of  the  abodes  of  wicked- 
ness.'" The  doctrine  of  human  free-will  is  assumed, 
and  the  sequel  proceeds  to  consider  the  Fall  as  the  origin 
of  the  'plan  of  salvation.'  Mens  immortalis:  corpus 
mortahj  of  the  same  date,  deals  with  the  mind  as  "eternal 
in  its  destinies,"  quite  theologically.  Ideality  versus 
Reality y  written  in  the  spring  of  1858,  enforces  the  need 
"of  governing  and  chastening  the  fountains  of  the  mind 
and  imagination  with  a  deep  sense  of  moral  and  religious 
things."    A    theme,    on    Enthusiasm    in    the    Student, 

*  The  Fundamental  Ideas  of  Christianity,  John  Caird,  Vol.  I,  p.  xiv. 


betrays  an  identical  pietistic  bent,  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  papers  on  subjects  such  SiS~Defective  or  Good 
Knowledge  of  Human  Nature;  Self-Denial  as  necessary 
to  Success;  and  the  Influence  of  Culture.     A  discussion  of 
the  Authority  for  observing  the  first  day  of  the  week  as  the 
Christian  Sabbath  is  eminently  characteristic  in  its  utter 
innocence   of   historical   evidence   and   method.     "The 
sacred  writer  confirms,  that  God  originally  established 
the  Sabbath  as  a  perpetual  ordinance."     Four  essays  on 
literary  subjects  are  extant,  composed  betw^een  June, 
1859  and  November,  I860:—  a  Criticism  of  ''Prometheus 
Bound;"  Irving's  " Life  of  Washington;''    Circumstances 
affecting  the  Character  of  different  Literatures;  and  (once 
more  significantly)  The  Moral  Teaching  of  ''Jane  Eyre," 
The  inw^ardness  of  iEschylus  is  not  penetrated  in  the 
least.     Irving's  w^ork  is  castigated  for  "the  absence  of 
virtues  rather  than  for  the  presence  of  faults"  and,  most 
suggestive,  reference  is  made  to  "the  author's  combined 
indolence   and   depravity"!     The   idea   of  immortality 
takes  rank  as  the  most  potent  circumstance  affecting 
the  character  of  different  literatures.     In  the  same  w^ay, 
Jane  Eyre  is  held  to  "bear  unmistakable  marks  of  the 
comparatively  low^  standard  in  morality  and  religion 
which  is  generally  supposed  to  prevail  in  Great  Britain. 
....  The  w^ork  will  be  found  to  incline  to  an  eclecticism 
in  religion  which  is  no  less  fatal  to  the  universal  spread 
of  pure  Christianity  than  it  is  removed  from  the  express 
teachings  of  Scripture."     Incredible  as  it  may  seem, 
this  last  represents  the  lad's  point  of  view  at  the  beginning 
of  his  senior  year  in  college. 

After  the  habit  of  youth,  ]\Iorris  perpetrated  a  mass  of 
rhymes  during  this  period.  It  is  worth  while,  perhaps, 
to  transcribe  the  follo\ving,  not  for  its  verse,  but  for  its 
sentiment;  it  tells  where  his  treasure  still  w^as  laid  up. 


'I 


54  THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 

To  A  Vermont  Village 

Emblem,  thou,  of  peace  and  comfort, 
Proud  prosperity  in  thee 
Ne'er,  with  adamantine  fetters, 
Binds  the  free! 

Emblem,  thou,  of  jo}^  and  beauty, 
Hard  adversity  in  thee 
Ne'er  assaults  the  widowed  mother 
Of  the  free! 

Ne'er  in  thee  to  hapless  powder 
Is  the  cheerless  orphan  ground; 
Nor  does  louder  still,  and  louder, 
Grow  the  sound 

Of  remorseless,  sore  privation 
Sending  forth  the  bitter  cry 
'  Hear,  oh  hear,  my  supplication 
Ere  I  die.' 

Joy  upon  thy  towering  hill-tops. 
Gladness  in  thy  smiling  vale, 
Peace  upon  thy  roUing  river. 
Tell  a  tale 

Of  contented,  calm  enjoyment. 
Love  unsullied,  hope  undimmed, 
And  the  cup  of  man's  rejoicing 
Overbrimmed. 

Ever  stand,  in  humble  beauty, 
Symbolising  to  mankind 
All  that's  truly  great  and  lovely. 
Brave  and  kind. 

The  Order  of  Exercises  at  Commencement,  Dartmouth 
College,  July  25,  1861,  an  eight-page  pamphlet,  is  pre- 
served. As  at  Kimball  Union  Academy,  twenty-three 
*  orations '  were  delivered,  Morris  leading  off  on  National 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


55 


Calamities  Incentives  to  National  Virtues*  Many  notes 
for  this  address  are  extant.  They  witness  that  he  took 
immense  pains,— as,  indeed,  he  did  with  all  his  papers,— 
and  that  the  titanic  struggle  which,  a  few  days  before, 
had  reached  a  culmination  as  unpalatable  as  unexpected, 
at  Bull  Run,  w^as  uppermost  in  his  mind. 

Conclusive  as  are  the  evidences  already  adduced  for 
the  unbroken  sway  of  the  Puritan  conscience  over 
Morris  during  school  and  college  days,  we  are  fortunate 
in  possession  of  a  document  w^hich  throw^s  vivid  light 
upon  his  outlook  and  main  interests.  He  began  to 
keep  a  Private  Journal  during  his  Senior  year  at  Kimball 
Union  Academy.  It  dates  from  13th  December,  1856, 
to   22d   August,    1861,   and   runs   to    181    pages.     One 

*  In  his  Private  Journal,  Morris  gives  a  full  account  of  the  incidents 
consequent  upon  the  failure  of  the  Faculty  to  appoint  him  Valedictorian, 
notwithstanding  that  he  was  the  best  scholar  in  the  Class.  It  seems 
that  the  professor,  to  whom  his  colleagues  had  delegated  the  arrange- 
ments, was  responsible.  The  graduates  were  greatly  incensed,  not  only 
by  the  slight  put  upon  Morris,  but  by  the  fact  that  preference  had  been 
given  to  a  son  of  a  member  of  the  Faculty — it  was  an  obvious  case  of 
favouritism,  they  thought.  Morris  himself  appears  to  have  been  most 
hurt  by  the  explanation  proffered  by  the  author  of  the  httise — it  turned 
out  to  be  untrue.  In  any  event,  when  Morris  appeared,  the  entire 
Class  rose,  and  cheered  lustily;  when  he  ended,  the  same  thing  happened, 
and  he  was  showered  with  bouquets  thrown  from  the  gallery.  When 
the  unfortunate  Valedictorian  came  forward,  the  Class  not  only  preserved 
silence,  but  some  of  them  left  the  platform.  Then,  too,  stimulated  by 
the  affront,  Morris  excelled  himself.  An  alumnus  of  his  acquaintance 
said,  "You  not  only  did  better  than  I  thought  you  should,  but  better 
than  I  supposed  you  could."  And  the  offending  professor,  seeking 
Morris  out,  told  him,  "You  never  spoke  half  so  well  before  in  your  life." 
The  Boston  Journal,  of  26th  July,  1857,  in  its  full  report  of  the  Dartmouth 
Commencement,  comments;  "The  best  production  was  almost  uni- 
versally conceded  to  be  that  of  George  S.  Morris,  of  Norwich,  Vt." 
Morris  concludes,  "I  write  all  this,  not  to  feed  my  vanity,  but  as  a  true 
record  of  facts."  We  who  teach  must  lay  it  to  heart  that  the  under- 
graduate has  an  alert  conscience  for  fair  play,  and  will  take  no  denial. 


56 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


would  naturally  anticipate  from  a  clever  boy  in  a  first- 
rate  secondary  school  and,  even  more,  from  the  most 
distinguished  student  of  his  time  in  college,  many  com- 
ments on  study,  and  on  problems  arising  from  books 
read  or  views  aired.  Here,  these  are  the  exception, 
never  the  rule.  Indeed,  there  is  but  a  single  long  passage 
directed  even  to  philosophical  questions;  we  shall  have 
an  opportunity  to  consider  it  later.*  The  few — less  than 
half  a  dozen — direct  references  to  study  mention  success 
casually,  as  it  were,  and  proceed  to  give  God  the  glory. 
In  short,  the  Journal  is  redolent  of  an  intense,  often 
introspective,  piety.  Christianity  of  the  most  evangel- 
ical type  colours  everything.  The  sermon  is  the  central 
point  of  interest.  Records  abound  of  attendance  at 
church  (always  twice  on  "  Sabbath  ")>  at  the  school  or 
college  chapel,  at  prayer  meetings,  missionary  conferen- 
ces, fast  days — in  preparation  for  the  "Lord's  Supper" — 
gatherings  of  the  Christian  Fraternity  (at  school)  and 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  (at  college). 
Throughout,  the  vital  things  concern  religion  (theological 
usually)  and  morality.  Study  is  all  very  well  as  a  duty, 
but,  at  the  best,  no  more  than  an  instrument  or  training 
for  "goodness."  One  might  expect  that  this  attitude 
would  alter  under  contact  with  the  larger  sweep  of 
college  life.  iVs  a  matter  of  fact,  till  the  very  end,  pietistic 
outbursts  recur — "God's  spirit  is  not  yet  poured  out 
in  Hanover."  The  phrase,  "the  church  of  God,"  is 
taken  as  synonymous  with  the  Congregational  church! 
Traces  of  divine  guidance — "God  was  very  near  to  me 
to-night" — are  acknowledged  continually,  and  common 
events  become  texts  for  lengthy  moralistic  exordiay 
turning  on  "man  as  an  accountable  being." 

*  See  below,  p.  222. 


GEORGE   SILVESTER   MORRIS 


57 


The  potent  influence  of  the  family  circle  appears  in 
frequent  references  to  immediate  relatives,  especially 
to  "Mother,  dear  Mother,"  and  to  "sister"  (Lucy). 
On  the  27th  July,  1857,  Morris  heard  an  address,  by 
Daniel  Kimball,  of  New  York,  before  the  Tilden  Female 
Seminary.  His  record  serves  to  confirm  what  Mrs. 
Cone  has  told  us  above  about  Lucy's  character. 

"He  advanced  sentiments  with  regard  to  the  equality  of 
the  two  sexes  somewhat  in  advance  of  what  his  hearers,  for 
the  most  part,  were  accustomed  to  hear.  Yet  I  do  not  say  that 
I  disagree  with  him.     He  pleased  my  sister  Lucy  very  much.'' 

The  pietas  of  the  lad  is  so  intense,  touching  and  sincere, 
that  I  should  deem  it  sacrilege  to  commit  its  expressions 
to  cold  print. 

Naturally,  this  temperament  moulds  his  views  about 
things  in  general,  as  a  few  examples  may  suffice  to  show. 

"Last  Tuesday,  I  received  a  letter  from  my  cousin,  Lucy 
Washburn,  from  Tilden  Female  Seminary,  in  reply  to  one 
which  I  sent  to  her  about  two  or  three  days  before.  When  I 
wrote  that  letter,  I  was  aware  that  there  was  unusual  rehgious 
interest  prevailing  in  the  school  which  she  attends.  I  dared, 
therefore,  to  address  to  her  a  few  words  of  admonition  and 
warning"  (19th  Apl.,1857).  ''Day  before  yesterday,  I 
suppose  James  Buchanan  was  inaugurated  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  May  God  grant  him  grace  to  do 
his  duty  much  more  faithfully  then  Frank  Pierce  has  done''' 
(6th  March,  1858). 

Three  years  later  (22d  ApL,  1861)  he  writes: 

"The  unusual  excitement  relative  to  the  affairs  of  the  Country 
is  quite  unfavourable  to  any  permanent  religious  impression, 
and  calls  for  unusual  efforts  on  the  part  of  all,  that  nothing 
be  considered  superior  in  intrinsic  importance  to  Rehgion." 

So,  too,  moralism  governs  his  literary  judgments. 

''This  evening  I  heard  John  G.  Saxe  dehver  his  poem  on 
'love'    in    the    College    Church.     It   is   a   good   thing.     I 


58 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


enjoyed  hearing  it  very  much.  It  abounded  in  witticisms, 
but  was  not  destitute  of  a  large  number  of  moral  sentiments  " 
(7th  Oct.,  1858).  ''Read  yesterday  E.  P.  Whipple's  Oration 
....  on  '  Washington.'  It  is,  of  course,  an  able  thing,  and 
contains  some  valuable  remarks  on  liberty"  (3d  Aug.  1859). 

Even  more  striking  and  symptomatic  is  this: 

*'I  have  lately  been  reading — in  part — the  poems  of  John 
Keats.  .  .  .  There  is  something,  either  in  their  subjects  or 
in  their  style,  which  is  utterly  offensive  to  my  feelings.  I 
think  the  fault  lies  partly  in  both  quarters.  His  'Hyperion' 
is  called  his  masterpiece  .  .  .  but  did  not  disclose  to  me  any 
crowning  quality  of  genius"  (19th  Sept.,  1859). 

Inevitably,  too,  Bunyan  wins  upon  him  more  than 
any  of  the  other  literary  masters. 

"I  find  him  to  be  vastly  superior  to  what  I  had  commonly 
supposed.  .  .  .  Bunyan  knew  the  heart  of  man,  consequently 
interpreted  the  Bible  correctly,  felt  the  power  of  its  truths, 
and  spared  no  means,  within  proper  bounds,  to  bring  more 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth"  (20th  ApL,  1860). 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  references  to  his  interest  in 
music  are  frequent.  He  belongs  to  the  Harmonic 
Society  (really  the  school  chapel  choir);  at  the  Kimball 
Union  commencement,  he  takes  the  tenor  part  in  a 
quartette;  during  vacations,  at  home,  he  "practices 
upon  the  piano,"  and  teaches  the  Sabbath  School  children 
to  sing  hymns;  he  is  one  of  the  organizers  of  a  singing 
school  in  connection  with  the  Young  Mens'  Christian 
Association;  it  secures  the  services  of  a  professional 
teacher,  in  whose  absence  Morris  assumes  the  baton. 
Nevertheless,  even  music  cannot  be  regarded  as  more 
than  a  handmaid. 

"Upon  the  evening  of  July  7th,  1858,  the  Beethoven 
Society  gave  a  concert.  .  .  .  When  I  came  away  my  feehngs 
were  those  of  profound  amazement.     Art,  as  exhibited  in  the 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


59 


expression,  and  the  grace  of  the  performers  and  all  their 
actions,  together  with  natural  talent,  combined  to  produce 
music  far  exceeding  anything  of  the  kind  which  I  have  had 
the  good  fortune  to  listen  to  before.  ...  I  felt  inward  desires 
and  aspirations  for  a  Hke  ability  to  sing  in  myself.  Still  I 
felt  that  the  object  I  have  in  view— that  of  being  educated 
and  doing  good— is  perhaps  a  far  better  and  nobler  one." 

We  learn,  too,  that  Morris  pursued  a  wide  range  of 
reading,  outside  class  requirements,  especially  during 
his  Senior  year  at  Dartmouth. 

"I  am  now  reading  and  studying  Hansel's  'Limits  of 
ReHgious  Thought'  by  myself." 

Pardoe's  "Louis  XIV";  Robertson's  "Scotland"; 
Cooper's  "The  Deerslayer";  "Kenilworth";  "Oliver 
Twist";  De  Quincy's  "Miscellaneous  Essays"  (Lamb, 
Coleridge,  etc.);  "Emerson,  E.  P.  Whipple,  with  a  touch 
of  Carlyle,"  are  specified.  Miss  Muloch'^  "Poems" 
please  him,  and  he  "has  read  a  great  deal  of  the  Bible." 
"Have  just  finished  Prescott's  'Ferdinand  and  Isabella,' 
the  first  history  that  he  wrote.  I  have  been  considerably 
interested  in  it,  though  it  is  by  no  means  so  engaging 
as  his  'Philip  the  Second,'  which  is  superior  to  F.  and  I. 
in  execution  and  finish,  as  well  as  in  the  natural  interest 
that  belongs  to  its  material"  (22d  Jan.,  1861). 

"During  Senior  Year  I  have  read  a  great  deal— much 
more  than  I  have  mentioned  in  my  Journal — particularly 
Motley's  History"  (22d  Aug.,  1861). 

Would  that  the  gilded  youth  among  our  contemporary 
Seniors,  who  are  so  apt  in  twelfth-hour  sciolisms,  might 
follow  this  example,  to  the  soundness  of  their  mental 
health! 

The  Journal  also  reveals  that  his  education  was  not 
altogether   literary,   and   that,   during   his   Junior   and 


60 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


Senior  years,  he  lived  in  college,  away  from  home.  He 
pursued  courses  in  Surveying  with  such  success  that, 
when  students  were  divided  into  squads  for  outdoor 
work,  he  was  chosen  a  squad-leader.  The  best  rooms 
in  college  were  two  at  the  Shattuck  Observatory  (then 
one^of  the  few  well-equipped  observatories  in  the  country)* 
They  were  assigned  by  appointment  to  the  first  scholars 
in  the  Junior  and  Senior  classes  respectively.  During 
his  two  years'  residence,  Morris  learned  something  of 
astronomy,  and  he  records: 

''For  the  last  two  or  three  evenings  the  members  of  my  Class 
have  been  coming  up  here  in  bodies  to  look  at  two  or  three 
of  the  major  planets,  Saturn,  Jupiter  or  Venus.  This  is  at 
the  suggestion  of  Prof.  Patterson,  and  it  is  my  duty,  of 
course,  to  wait  upon  the  boys,  and  give  them  such  information 
as  I  may  be  able  to." 

Finally,  nt  is  worthy  of  note,  as  bearing  upon  his 
future  career,  that  he  had  several  opportunities  to  teach, 
from  his  Senior  year  in  school  and  on.  In  February, 
1857,  when  Principal  Richards  was  absent,  Morris  heard 
the  Latin  classes  at  Kimball  Union  Academy— a  tribute, 
too,  to  his  scholarship.  In  January,  1859,  he  tells  us 
that,  during  the  long  vacation  between  terms,  he  taught 
four  hours  a  day  in  Mr.  Pease's  private  school  at  Norwich. 
When  a  college  Junior,  he  acted  as  classical  tutor  to  a 
brother  of  Professor  Patterson  (mathematics  and  astron- 
omy)— a  teacher  who,  by  the  way,  exerted  considerable 
influence  over  him.  In  December,  January  and  Febru- 
ary, 1860-61,  he  taught  for  twelve  weeks  in  the  school 

*  We  still  possess  his  careful  description  of  the  equipment,  with  an 
account  of  its  cost,  and  a  comparison  with  the  resources  of  the  observ- 
atories at  Washington,  West  Point,  Cincinnati.  Hamilton  College,  and 
Albany.  N.  Y. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


61 


of  District  No.  3,  Medbury,  Massachusetts.  We  need 
not  wonder,  then,  when  we  light  upon  this,  the  last, 
entry  in  the  Journal: 

"Next  week  I  go  to  Royalton  with  sister  Lucy,  to  take 
charge  of  an  Academy"  (22d  Aug.,  1861). 


CHAPTER  III 

Early  Manhood.    Royaltox.    The  Civil  War. 
Dartmouth  College  once  More 

(1861-64) 

Royalton  Academy,  whither  Morris  went  so  happily 
as  principal,  with  his  favorite  sister  to  assist  him,  had 
been  founded  in  1807.  Royalton  township,  which  lies 
some  twenty-five  miles  northwest  from  Windsor,  the 
county  seat,  had  a  population  of  1739  in  1860,  and  the 
village  appeared  to  Dr.  Gardner  Cox,  now  of  Holyoke, 
Mass.,  who  came  down  to  the  Academy  from  a  hill 
farm  at  Barnard  (in  1861),  "a  big  city,  compared  to 
its  present  utter  loneliness,  when  there  are  none  so  poor 
as  to  do  it  service."*  Indeed,  it  ranked  with  Windsor, 
Woodstock  and  Norwich,  as  one  of  the  important  places 
in  the  county.  By  good  luck,  we  still  have  the  pro- 
spectus of  the  Academy  and  the  report  of  the  Committee 

*  Mr.  Mason  S.  Stone,  Superintendent  of  Education  for  the  State  of 
Vermont,  has  been  good  enough  to  give  me  the  following  information 
relative  to  Royalton  Academy.  It  confirms  Dr.  Cox's  statement. 
"The  town  of  Royalton  has  greatly  decreased  in  population.  The 
village  of  South  Royalton,  two  miles  below  Royalton,  has  increased  in 
population  and  greatly  overshadowed  the  old  village  of  Royalton. 
Until  this  year  (1913),  S.  Royalton  was  an  incorporated  school  district. 
The  old  Royalton  Academy  had  been  run  by  the  town  as  a  high  school 
but,  with  the  decrease  of  population,  the  attendance  upon  the  Royalton 
High  School  had  decreased  to  less  than  twenty.  Therefore,  this  year 
(1913),  the  S.  Royalton  Incorporated  District  surrendered  its  articles 
of  Incorporation,  went  into  the  town,  and  the  South  Royalton  High 
School  became  the  high  school  of  the  town  and  the  old  Royalton  Academy 
ceased  to  exist.  Its  transition  from  an  Academy  to  a  High  School  was 
made  in  1908." 

62 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


63 


of  Examination  for  1861-2.    As  principal,  Morris  had 
supervision    of    classics    and    mathematics    and,    when 
necessary,  taught  German  and  music.     His  sister  was 
preceptress  and  gave  instruction  in  French.     Miss  Alice 
Denison    taught    drawing    and    painting.    She    was    a 
member  of  the  old  Royalton  family  which,  later,  furn- 
ished Morris  with  a  colleague  at  Ann  Arbor,  in  the 
person  of  Professor  Charles  Simeon  Denison  (d.  1913). 
Denison  appears  as  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  academy 
"Exhibition"  of  November,  1861,  and  was  therefore  a 
pupil  under  Morris.     Mr.  J.  E.  Emery  was  assistant  to 
theyoung  principal.     The'Examiners  commend  the  school 
for  its  thoroughness  and  accuracy  as  follows: 

''Not  only  the  strictness  with  which  the  Latin  and  Greek 
languages  are  here  taught,  is  worthy  of  approbation,  but 
also,  the  extent  to  which  the  study  is  carried:  so  that  recita' 
tions  m  Xenophon  and  Homer,  by  young  ladies  as  well  as 
young  gentlemen,  appeared  as  favourably  as  would  be  ex- 
pected under  skillful  training  in  any  seminary  of  learning. 
The  range  of  study,  heretofore  extensive,  has  been  enlarged 
by  the  addition  of  a  class  in  Astronomy,  such  as  does  not 
often  appear  in  schools  of  this  description.'' 

The  attendance  numbered  one  hundred.  As  we  shall 
see  later,*  the  youthful  head  exerted  instant  influence. 
Xot  in  their  studies  alone,  but  in  religious  life  and  social 
decorum,  the  pupils  found  a  leader  upon  whom  they 
could  set  their  trust.  The  new  circumstances  produced 
no  change  in  the  temper  of  the  man.  The  pietistic  tone 
still  prevails,  supported,  undoubtedly,  by  all  the  sur- 
roundings. Morris  enters  upon  his  task,  "resolved  to 
live  nearer  to  Christ"— a  resolution  written  down  on 
his  birthday,  15th  November,  1861. 

*  See  below,  p.  72. 


64 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


65 


Six  lectures— five  addressed  to  his  pupils,  one  to  a 
maturer  audience  at  East  Barnard— remain,  to  indicate 
his  mental  attitude  at  the  time.  The  school  addresses 
are  on  the  Objects  and  Methods  of  Study;  Geology;  Elements 
of  Perfect  Manhood  and  the  Present  National  Necessity 
for  Real  Men;  Books  and  Reading;  a  general  review  of  the 
subject  for  the  class  in  the  History  of  England.  The 
pubhc  lecture  is  on  Astronomy.  Once  more,  the  notes 
already  familiar  to  us  are  struck. 

''Intellectual  and  spiritual  nature  is  to  be  managed  and 
directed  by  us  to  the  greatest  individual  development,  for  the 
highest  good  of  the  race,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  our  final 
well-being." 

Geology  serves  to  enforce  the  argument  from  design. 
The  voice  of  the  Puritan  North  rings  out  clear: 

''Our  own  country  is  now  in  a  condition  that  requires  the 
definite  development  of  individual  and  National  character. 
The  wild  forces  of  evil  have  formed  an  insensate  union  in 
opposition  to  the  ideas  of  law,  civiUzation  and  progress. 
They  summon  us  to  a  contest  in  which  force,  brutality, 
barbarism  and  retrogression  are  arrayed  against  Hberty, 
order  and  improvement"  (7th  Nov.,  1861). 

The  austerity  necessary  in  reading  is  set  forth : 

"There  is  little  danger  that  many  of  you  will  become  too 
deeply  read  in  the  appropriate  kind  of  literature  here.  This 
is  partly  due  to  the  too  prevalent  notion  that  reading  is  a 
mere  pastime,  and  no  work.  It  is,  indeed,  work.  The 
more  it  taxes  the  mental  powers,  the  more  substantial  and, 
under  certain  conditions,  the  more  useful  it  is.  One  requires 
at  the  outset  the  same  determination,  only  of  a  higher  kind, 
in  order  to  accomplish  much  in  the  way  of  profitable  reading, 
which  is  needed  when  one  undertakes  a  piece  of  manual 
labour." 

The  history  of  England  is  dealt  with  according  to  a 
sanctified  common  sense.     As  for  Astronomy, 


"It  is  regarded  as  historically  certain,  that  astronomical 
observations  were  made,  with  considerable  success  at  least, 
soon  after  the  fall  of  the  tower  of  Babel.  .  .  .  The  visible 
universe  constitutes  a  standing  argument  to  demonstrate 
the  glory  and  power  of  the  Creator.  A  correct  appreciation 
of  its  vastness  and  undisturbed  order,  together  with  its  marks 
of  exquisite  design,  strengthens  in  the  mind  the  belief  in  the 
Deity.  As  this  sentiment  gains  ground,  the  sense  of  obhga- 
tion  increases.  The  sum  of  personal  consequence  is  dimin- 
ished. The  feeUng  of  subjection  to  the  control  of  an  Infinite 
Power  is  increased.  Man  reaches  Jehovah  in  forms  of  beauty 
and  love  and  might,  as  night  approaches." 

In  a  word,  while  the  material  is  always  excellent,  and 
the  presentation  clear,  occasionally  elegant,  the  general 
outlook  remains  true  to  the  teaching  of  the  New  England 
home.  Moreover,  in  these,  as  in  the  earlier  MSS. 
which  survive,  humour  is  conspicuous  by  its  total  absence. 
The  w^eight  of  human  life,  discernible  everywhere,  does 
not  depress,  warm  faith  sustaining;  but  grave  serious- 
ness grips  the  young  principal,  who  has  just  attained  his 
majority. 

Nevertheless,  his  open  mind,  responsive  to  new  duties 
and  to  contemporary  events,  asserted  itself.  Politics, 
history  and  science  pressed  their  claims  to  consideration 
successfully;  the  excitement  of  the  times  did  not  keep 
him  from  books,  and  we  know  what  he  read.  On  the 
back  of  an  old  letter,  the  following  notes  are  pencilled: 
"Books  read  in  1862.  Ashley,  "Common  Sense"; 
Baldwin,  "The  Want  of  the  South";  Cheney,  "Scien- 
tific Farming";  Denison,  "Political  Criticism  of  Public 
Men";  Maxham,  " Mineralogical  Wonders  of  Nature"; 
Mosher,  "  Origin  and  Development  of  Polytheism  among 
the  Classical  Nations";  Parker,  "Future  of  Canada"; 
Parkhurst,  "Selfishness  versus  Self-Respect;"  Phelps, 
6 


66 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


67 


"Wars  of  the  United  States;"  Smith,  "Uses  of  His- 
tory." And  so,  thanks  to  many  preoccupations, 
the  year  at  Royalton  passes  quickly,  to  end  in  a  self- 
examination,  covering  but  a  sheet  of  note-paper,  yet  a 
document  full  of  intimation. 

''I  am  about  to  leave  Royalton.  I  have  been  Preceptor 
in  Royalton  Academy  one  year. 

"  I  have  failed  during  my  stay  here  in  the  following  respects. 
(1)  In  labours  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  my  pupils.  I  might 
have  been  a  better  Christian,  thus  setting  a  better  example, 
if  I  had  been  actuated  in  my  Christian  exercises  and  acts 
less  by  fear  and  more  by  love  to  Christ.  I  might  actually 
have  led  some  of  my  scholars  to  Christ,  if  I  had  laboured  ex- 
pressly for  this  purpose,  subject,  of  course,  to  the  decisions 
of  an  all-wise  Providence.  (2)  In  my  intercourse  with  my 
scholars  I  have  not,  in  many  cases,  exhibited  that  force  of 
character  which  I  should  have  desired;  nor  have  I  led  their 
minds  to  the  proper  objects  of  thought  and  desire,  to  the 
same  extent  to  which  I  should  like  to  have  done  it.  (3)  I 
have  not  taught  as  energetically,  faithfully  and  conscien- 
tiously as  it  would  have  been  well  to  do. 

''On  the  other  hand,  I  have  endeavoured  (1)  weakly  to  lead 
my  pupils  to  a  correct  and  thorough  knowledge  of  all  their 
branches  of  study.  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
I  have  been  partly  successful.  (2)  I  have  tried,  by  precept 
both  orally  and  by  lectures,  to  set  before  them  right  motives 
for  study,  and  right  objects  of  ambition,  and  to  incite  them 
to  enthusiasm  and  studiousness  in  many  subjects  more  or 
less  connected  with  their  studies.  (3)  I  have  sought,  more 
or  less,  to  be  genial  and  pleasant  in  my  intercourse  with  my 
scholars,  to  assure  them  of  my  personal  interest  in  them,  and, 
by  my  conduct,  to  secure  their  respect.  (4)  In  the  conduct 
of  the  daily  reUgious  exercises,  I  have  to  some  extent  sought 
to  render  it  impressive,  and  trust  that  some  impressions  have 
been  communicated  thus,  which  will  be  permanent  and  useful. 

''I  have  been  treated  cordially  and  with  great  respect  by 
scholars  and  citizens.  I  leave  because  I  cannot,  consistently 
with  my  plans  and  desires,  remain.  I  have  no  time  to  throw 
away. 


"Here  I  cannot  make  much  money.  What  time  I  do 
teach,  I  must  make  it  profitable,  that  I  may  earn  money  to 
bear  further  educational  expenses,  and  to  assist  me  in  the 
prosecution  of  certain  designs  of  travel  and  study,  which  I 
shall  be  very  much  disappointed  not  to  carry  out. 

"I  go  to  Auburn  Theological  Seminary,  God  willing, 
next  autu7mi.'' 

This  confession  establishes  several  points.  First, 
Morris's  faith  and  fundamental  attitude  towards  life 
are  entirely  undisturbed  as  yet,  although  he  nears  his 
twenty-second  birthday.  Second,  he  regards  teaching 
as  no  more  than  a  method  to  furnish  the  financial  means 
for  a  farther  end.  Third,  he  still  proposes,  as  when  he 
entered  Kimball  Union  Academy,  eight  years  before, 
to  find  his  vocation  in  the  Christian  ministrv. 

At  the  same  time,  one  quality  should  be  recalled,  for 
it  was  destined  to  assert  itself  afterwards.     Dr.  Tucker 
tells  us  that,  from  the  outset,  Morris  "had  a  remarkably 
truth-loving  mind,  and  the  quiet  but  sure  courage  to 
meet    its    demands."     Xow%    the    Royalton    addresses 
oflPer  many  signs  that  his  orthodoxy,  as  we  may  call  it 
fairly,  w^as  not  based  on  blind  attachment  to  the  letter 
of  Scripture.     He  never  "thanked  God  for  being  able 
to  confine  his  attention  to  the  one  Book."     Rather,  he 
brooded   upon   'the   things   wdiich   cannot   be   shaken,' 
and  his  musings  w^ere  directed  by  a  consciousness  that 
the  systejii  of  Christianity— identical  with  the  system 
of  truth — contained  something  distinctive  and,  partic- 
ularly, something  universal,  from  which  all  human  affairs 
derived    their    real    significance.     'Surrounded    by    so 
great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,'  man  was  suffused  with  a 
glorious  nimbus.    The  idea  that 

''The  horseman  serves  the  horse, 
The  neatherd  serves  the  neat, 


68  THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 

The  merchant  serves  the  purse, 
The  eater  serves  his  meat; 
'Tis  the  day  of  the  chattel, 
Web  to  weave,  and  corn  to  grind; 
Things  are  in  the  saddle, 
And  ride  mankind," 

would  have  appeared  infantile  to  him.  But  it  had 
never  occurred  to  him  to  ask,  Why? 

*'The  sudden  element  that  changes  things. 
That  sets  the  undreamed-of  rapture  at  his  hand," 

was  still  t9  be  tested.  He  was  the  subject  of  definite 
coercive  principles,  in  no  sense  their  master.  Besides, 
practical  affairs  were  to  interpose,  so  that  two  years 
elapsed, — years  of  new  horizons, — ere  he  could  realize 
his   cherished   project   of   farther   preparation   for   the 

ministry. 

Like  all  New  England,  Royalton  was  in  a  state  of 
excitement  when  Morris  arrived.  Dr.  Gardner  Cox 
writes : 

''It  was  war  times,  drums  were  beating  and  war's  wild 
bugle  blasts  were  blowing.  The  soldiers  were  camping  in 
the  old  town  house  on  the  common,  as  they  organised  a 
company  in  Royalton,  and  from  the  surroundings,  one  hun- 
dred strong.  ...  It  was  a  great  day  for  Royalton,  with  one 
hundred  students  and  one  hundred  soldiers  drilhng.  Morris 
was  much  interested  in  the  soldiers,  and  made  several  speeches, 
talks  to  the  people,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  I  well 
remember  one  afternoon,  when  every  father  and  mother  was 
there,  and  the  train  was  about  to  move  out,  carrying  those 
who  were  never  to  return.  The  second  Ueutenant  of  the 
Company  was  Daniel  LiUie,  later  Captain  of  Co.  1,  4th 
Vermont  Regiment,  wounded  in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness, 
and  died  in  Washington,  after  an  operation  by  Surgeon  Bliss, 
who  attended  President  Garfield.  .  .  .  Several  of  Morris's 
students  became  quite  celebrated." 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


69 


Human  emotion  could  scarce  resist  such  appeals. 
But  Morris,  schooled  to  detect  the  futility  of  mere 
feeling,  was  revolving  the  situation  reflectively,  forming 
reasoned  convictions.     He  says: 

"I  make  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  WTitten  by  me, 
August  18th,  1862,  as  a  deliberate  record  of  my  convictions  at 
that  date:— I  am  planning  to  enter  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  Theological 
Seminary  this  fall,  unless  I  am  drafted  into  the  military  service 
of  the  United  States. 

''I  have  by  no  means  been  insensible  to  the  claims  which  our 
Government  justly  lays  to  the  active  service  of  all  able-bodied 
young  men  throughout  the  loyal  country.  I  take  the  course 
indicated  above  in  face  of  strong  impulses.  I  have  many  times 
been  strongly  moved  to  yield  to  my,  as  I  think,  purely  patriotic 
mstincts,  and  join  the  Volunteer  Army  in  some  capacity.  To  be 
a  soldier  in  the  Union  Army  at  the  present  time  is,  in  my  opinion, 
a  truly  honorable  and  glorious  service— sufficiently  so  for  any 
mortal  and,  in  case  of  extreme  national  peril,  of  paramount 
importance  as  a  duty.  Yet,  there  is  another  service  still,  superior 
to  this  in  glory  and  honour— that  of  Christ  in  the  sacred  Ministry. 

"To  this,  my  desires,  with  increasing  ardour,  lead  me,  and,  for 
this,  my  education  has  already  partly  fitted  me.  Unless,  there- 
fore, the  necessities  into  which  rebeUion  forces  the  Nation  become 
so  pressing  as  to  require  every  man  to  spring  to  the  rescue  by 
volunteering,  I  incline  to  think  it  my  duty  to  proceed,  so  far  as 
my  health  will  permit,  with  the  work  of  preparing  for  the  clerical 
office,  until  I  am  brought  into  the  Army  by  a  draft,  in  which 
case  my  duty  will  be  plain,  since  'the  lot  is  cast  mto  the  lap,  but 
the  whole  disproving  thereof  is  of  the  Lord."' 

The  New  England  conscience  never  spoke  more  forth- 
right. Nor  were  the  larger  issues  of  principle  neglected. 
Morris  had  made  up  his  mind  about  the  'cause'  no  less 
than  about  possible  practical  events.  We  still  have  a 
paper  on  Slavery — perhaps  an  address  on  such  an  occasion 
as  Dr.  Cox  mentions — that  speaks  with  no  uncertain 
sound.     It  bears  the  date  4th  September,  1862. 


70 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


71 


''Slavery  is  a  relic  of  harbarism.  Violating  the  most  obvious 
and  sacred  principles  of  right,  it  is  utterly  repugnant  to  an 
uncorrupted  moral  sense.  Ministering,  as  it  does,  to  some  of  the 
most  violent  passions  of  man— his  avarice  and  love  of  power— it 
easily  blinds  those  who  are  selfishly  interested  in  its  existence 
and  perpetuation.  ...  If  Slavery  should  continue,  the  demands 
actually  made  by  the  Rebellion,  which  represents  the  interests  of 
Slavery,  are  such  that  even  the  temporary  preservation  of  the 
Union,  and  of  Peace,  is  impossible,  without  an  entire  subversion 
of  the  spirit  of  our  Institutions.  .  .  .  The  genius  of  Republic- 
anism requires  for  its  proper  development  a  high  state  of  moral 
enlightenment.  So  far  as  a  people  are  deficient  in  this  respect, 
their  institutions,  if  Republican,  are  unstable— if  monarchical, 
they  may  be  perpetuated,  for  monarchism  savours  of  barbarism. 
....  Now,  the  extravagance  and  insolence  of  the  Slave  Power 
have  culminated  in  direct  attack  upon  the  Government.  The 
success  of  this  attempt  would  involve  evil  consequences  of  untold 
magnitude.  To  foil  this  unholy  attempt,  the  Nation  springs  to 
arms,  unanimous  in  devotion  to  the  Republic— still  divided  in 
sentiment  as  regards  Slavery.  But  this  disagreement  in  opinion 
fast  disappears  with  the  continuance  of  the  war.  And  the  more 
sensible  the  nation  becomes  of  the  deadliness  of  those  thrusts 
which  Rebellion  for  Slavery  is  making  upon  the  best  interests  of 
the  Country,  the  less  sensitive  will  it  be  as  to  the  extremity  of 
means  resorted  to  to  parry  them.  ...  I  now  believe  that  God 
designs  this  War  should  not  terminate  except  with  Slavery.  .  .  . 
I  believe  we  shall  be  allowed  only  partial  success,  until  after 
emancipation  has  been  proclaimed,  and  measures  have  been 
taken  for  its  actualisation.  Reverses  are  the  discipline  by  which 
we  are  to  be  educated  to  the  unanimous  adoption  of  this  senti- 
ment. The  cost  of  this  education  is  great,  but  we  inust  endure  it. 
May  God  hasten  it  in  his  own  good  time!  .  .  .  Plainly,  the  hand 
of  God  is  seen  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  in  the  history 
of  our  country  since  his  entrance  upon  the  duties  of  his  office." 

Here,  again,  we  find  Morris  joyfully  submissive  to  a 
coercive  principle.  Right  is  not  Right  in  itself,  but  on 
the  indisputable  ground  that  God  commands  it.  The 
individual  man  is  not  his  own,  but  is  bought  with  a 


price,— the  ideal  inspiration  of  his  folk,  likewise  divinely 
bestowed.  Patriotism  rules,  because  devoted  to  the 
sole  ends  that  can  be  accounted  worth  while.  Thus, 
when  the  inevitable  came,  and  Morris  enlisted,  he  was 
not  the  subject  of  gusty  emotion,  of  impracticable 
loyalty.  His  great  resolution  must  be  postponed  in 
favour  of  a  greater,  one  no  less  an  ordinance  of  the  Al- 
mighty. It  was  the  old,  old  story,  the  tale  of  every 
masterful  human  achievement,  "Speak  to  the  children 
of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward."  An  Ultimate  Power 
winnow^ed  reality  from  immediate  appearances.  This 
was  manifest  even  to  a  raw  youth,  without  any  sort  of 
large  perspective,  as  Dr.  Cox  confesses  himself. 

''You  can  say  on  my  authority  that,  if  there  was  ever  a  soldier 
who  enlisted  from  pure  patriotism,  it  was  Morris.     My  first 
talk  with  him,  after  we  met  in  the  army,  was  at  Brattleboro,  our 
first  place  of  rendezvous.     I  was  saying,  that  I  was  astonished  to 
see  him  in  the  company  and  in  the  ranks.    And  he  said:  'It  is 
my  duty,  every  loyal  man  owes  his  service  to  the  country;  I 
know  it  is  a  great  sacrifice  to  break  into  my  plans,  and  give  this 
time  to  the  country.    But  I  could  not  stay  at  home  and  feel  that 
the  country  needed  my  services.     I  could  not  sleep  and  feel  that 
I  withheld  from  the  country  that  which  I  had  to  give  in  this 
supreme  hour.'     He  was  visibly  affected,  tears  ran  down  his 
cheeks,  but  he  repeated  it  over  and  over  again,  that  whatever  he 
had  to  give,  it  did  not  belong  to  him  to  keep.     I  will  say  that 
Morris  had  not  a  taint  of  military  instinct.     He  handled  his  gun 
as  awkwardly  as  a  woman  does  an  axe  and,  when  he  marched, 
it  was  out  of  gear  with  the  rank  and  file.  .    .   .     When  I  got 
into  the  war,  in  the  16th  Vermont  Regiment,  I   was   dum- 
founded  to   find  him  there,   and  only   a  private,  while  I,   a 
poor  country  lout,  was  an  officer.    The  Colonel,  Wheelock  G. 
Veazey,  was  also  a  Dartmouth  graduate,  and,  when  he  found 
that  Morris  had  enlisted  purely  out  of  patriotism  and  duty,  he 
made  him  postmaster  to  the  regiment,  which  kept  him  off  the 
firing  line,  and  gave  him  a  tent  all  by  himself.     Once  a  day  he 


72 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


went  after  the  mail  bag,  sorted  out  the  different  Companies' 
mail,  and  handed  it  out  to  the  orderly  sergeants,  of  whom  I  was 
one  for  the  first  months.  He  peddled  postage  stamps  and,  I 
beUeve,  had  paper  and  envelopes  for  sale.  .  .  .  We  were  all  so 
glad  that  he  had  that  place— there  were  several  of  his  Royalton 
students  in  our  company.  We  felt  proud  of  him,  even  if  he  did 
not  have  a  shoulder-strap  on  his  coat." 

And,   although  Morris  had   no  flair  for   soldiering, 
they  had  reason  to  be  proud.     Dr.  Cox  continues: 

"As  I  was  an  orderly  sergeant,  I  had  the  privilege  of  keeping 
a  hght  burning  in  my  humble  tent  after  all  the  rest  were  out. 
Morris,  ever  true  to  his  impulses,  came  into  my  little  tent,  where 
lived  four  others.     He  had  five  copies  of  Hamlet,  little,  cheap, 
paper-covered  Hamlets,  but  Shakespeare's  own  Hamlet.     He 
said  to  one  Bowman,  who  belonged  to  another  tent,  but  who  was 
a  fine  scholar  with  me  at  Royalton,  'now  scholars,  I  want  to 
introduce  you  to  the  best  intellectual  entertainment  in  all 
literature,'  and  he  gave  us  each  a  copy.     I  never  had  read  a 
word  of  Shakespeare,  and  did  not  suppose  ordinary  mortals 
could  understand,  and  I  was  shocked  that  he  should  think  that 
we  country  chumps  could  read  Shakespeare  and  understand  it. 
....  We  were  made  to  love  those  evenings  with  the  greatest 
profit  and  enthusiasm.    Each  read  a  part  assigned  to  him  and, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  we  had  pretty  well  studied  Shake- 
speare, and  had  gone  over  all  of  the  best  plays.     It  whiled  away 
so  many  of  those  long,  weary,  lonesome  nights  to  us  poor  home- 
sick boys,  scarcely  acquainted  with  the  world  enough  to  speak 
for  ourselves." 

We  still  have  a  short  paper  on  Shakespeare,  dated  at 
Fairfax  Station,  Va.,  and  undoubtedly  read  to  the  'boys' 
by  Morris.  It  serves  to  indicate  that  his  moralistic 
approach  to  art  had  not  altered  a  whit. 

''The  drama  is  not  the  product  of  modern  invention.  Among 
what  people  it  was  first  known  in  its  most  rudimentary  character, 
I  cannot  say.  Quite  likely  something  answering  to  it  may  have 
sprung  up  spontaneously  m  many  nations,  no  one  borrowing 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


73 


from  another.    For  since,  like  all  national  amusements,  and  all 
national  customs,  it  must  owe  its  origin  to  the  existence  of  some 
normal  and  virtuous,  or  unnatural  and  vicious  want  of  humanity, 
and  since  humanity,  the  world  over,  is  essentially  the  same,  the 
same  want  or  desire  would  not  improbably  lead  to  the  same 
concrete  result  in  different  places,  at  the  same  time.    The  drama 
has  its  original  warrant  in  a  real  and  therefore  sacred  want  of 
human  nature — the  want  of  an  actual,  perceptible,  and  compre- 
hensive representation  (necessarily  a  representation  of  human 
life)  by  which  individual  life  should  be  dignified  and  elevated, 
something    that    would    stimulate    self-penetration    and    self- 
knowledge,  and  that,  by  stimulating  thought,  deepening  feeling 
and  imparting  knowledge  on  one's  higher  capacities,   should 
serve  to  educate  the  man.    To  educate,  I  mean,  in  the  highest 
sense.  .  .  .  The  drama,  then,  not  only  existed  at  an  early  date, 
but  had  a  right  to  exist,  since  it  was  adapted  to  satisfy  a  longing 
and  a  need  of  man.  .  .  .  Another  form  of  the  Drama  afterwards 
arose,  called  Comedy,  of  which  Aristophanes  is  the  best  exponent. 
In  this,  living  individuals  were  ridiculed,  fun  was  made  of  every- 
thing.    The  stage  had  degenerated  when  men  employed  it,  not 
merely  for  exciting  merriment,  an  object  sufficiently  laudable  in 
itself,  but  to  traduce  public  men,  make  light  of  the  most  serious 
realities  of  life,  and  corrupt  the  manners  and  morals  of  the  people, 
by  representing  immorality  and  indecency  as  virtuous.     Shake- 
speare's Plays  are  chiefly  tragedies,  a  few  of  them  are  comedies. 
His  age  was  rich  in  dramatic  writers.    The  stage  was  then  counten- 
anced by  the  most  virtuous,  and  tended  to  the  improvement  of 
the  people.    If,  at  the  present  day,  the  theatre  is,  not  merely  in 
the  public  mind,  but  actually,  associated  with  dens  of  drunken- 
ness and  licentiousness,  we  should  beware  of  condemning  the 
good  from  its  unfortunate  and  unnecessary  connection  with  the 
evil." 

The  circumstances  which  led  Morris  to  enlist  are 
quite  clear.  Aroused  by  the  disasters  of  the  Peninsular 
campaign,  President  Lincoln  issued  a  call  for  300,000 
militia,  to  serve  nine  months.  This  was  on  4th  August, 
1862.     Vermont's    quota    was    4898    men.     On    15th 


74 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


August,  Governor  Holbrook,  of  Vermont,  issued  General 
Order,  No.  13,  wherein  he  appealed  to  patriotism. 

"The  order  stated  that  no  recruiting  officers  would  be  ap- 
pointed, but  that  the  town  officers  and  patriotic  citizens  would  be 
expected  to  enlist  the  men  and  form  the  companies.  .  .  .  Among 
the  men  so  enlisting  were  many  men  of  high  patriotic  purpose, 
whose  professional  and  civil  responsibilities  had  not  permitted 
them  to  engage  in  a  three  years '  term  in  the  army."* 

The  Second  Vermont  Brigade,  consisting  of  the  12th, 
13th,  14th,  15th  and  16th  Regiments,  was  formed  in 
answer  to  this  call.  Morris  enlisted  in  the  16th.  The 
Regiment  had  its  rendezvous  at  Brattleboro,  on  October 
9th,  where  it  received  its  accoutrement,  and  learned  the 
elements  of  discipline.  It  was  mustered  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States  on  the  23d,  and,  moving  south 
immediately,  reached  Washington  on  the  27th,  to  find 
the  12th  already  in  camp.f 

*  Vermont  in  the  Civil  War.  A  History  of  the  Part  taken  by  the  Ver- 
mont Soldiers  and  Sailors  in  the  Warfare  for  the  Union,  1861-5.  G.  G. 
Benedict.  Vol.  II.,  pp.  399,  401.  Chap,  xxvi..  Vol.  II.,  contains  an 
account  of  the  Second  Brigade. 

fThe  following  outline  of  its  service  is  condensed  from  Benedict, 
Chap,  xxvi.,  Vol.  II.  On  28th  October,  1862,  just  as  it  was  settling 
down  in  camp  at  Washington,  it  was  ordered  across  the  Potomac,  and 
went  to  "Camp  Vermont."  near  Centreville,  Va.,  where  it  did  picket 
duty  on  the  defence  line  of  Washington,  and  fatigue  duty  on  the  works  of 
Fort  Lyon.  In  mid-December,  when  Sigel's  corps  left  Fairfax  Court 
House  to  support  Burnside,  the  Vermont  Brigade  took  its  place,  picket- 
ing the  outer  defence  line  of  Washington  along  Bull  Run  and  Cub  Run. 
In  the  midst  of  Mosby's  raids,  which  began  at  the  end  of  December, 
and  culminated  in  the  capture "  of  the  Vermont  Brigadier,  General 
Stoughton,  on  the  night  of  8th-9th  March,  1863,  the  16th  moved  to 
Fairfax  Station  (19th  January).  Here  it  remained  till  the  end  of  March, 
when  it  moved  forward  to  Union  Mills,  doing  picket  duty  from  Bull  Run 
to  Blackburn's  Ford,  and  guarding  the  reconstruction  of  the  railway 
from  Orange  to  Alexandria.  On  25th  June,  the  Brigade  began  its  march 
from  Union  Mills  to  Gettysburg,  and  covered  120  miles  in  six  days, 
undergoing  many  hardships.     It  arrived  at  Cemetery  Ridge  during  the 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


75 


Morris,  who  rose  to  the  rank  of  corporal,  was  a  member 
of  Company  K  (Chester),  which  enlisted  on  15th  Septem- 
ber. Thirty  of  its  one  hundred  men  came  from  Norwich, 
among  them  the  captain,  Samuel  Hutchinson.  Another 
corporal  was  Charles  B.  Converse,  a  distant  cousin  of 
Morris.  As  we  have  heard  already,  the  colonel  was 
Wheelock  G.  Veazey  (Dartmouth,  class  of  1859,  after- 
wards a  Justice  of  the  Vermont  Supreme  Court).  His 
Roster  contains  this  record:  "A  more  intelligent  and 
educated  body  of  men,  it  is  safe  to  say,  was  never  mus- 
tered for  any  regiment."  Morris  was  successively 
mail  carrier  for  the  regiment,  and  Assistant  Brigade 
Postmaster.  Referring  to  the  latter  office,  in  his  single 
letter  from  the  seat  of  war  now  preserved,  he  writes: 
'I  am  very  glad  of  the  place,  especially  as  I  did  not 
ask  for  it.  The  retiring  Asst.  P.  M.  belongs  to  the  12th 
Regiment.  Henceforth  I  shall  pass  every  other  night 
at  a  public  house  in  Alexandria,  Va.     Of  course,  I  have 

night  after  the  first  day's  battle,  and  came  into  action  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  second  day,  when  Humphreys'  line  was  nearly  pierced.     An  awful 
night  of  picket  duty  among  the  dead,  dying  and  wounded  followed. 
On  the  third  day,  the  16th,  with  the  13th,  executed  under  the  orders  of 
their  Brigadier,  Stannard,  the  famous  flank  movement  which  resulted  in 
the  repulse  of  Pickett's  division.     The  16th  had  taken  numerous  prisoners 
and  was  scattered  in  groups  looking  after  them,  when  Wilcox  came  up. 
Veazey,  reforming  his  men,  repulsed  this  attack,  which  had  been  delivered 
too  late  to  be  of  any  avail.     The  16th  lost  sixteen  killed,  eighty-five 
wounded,   and   thirteen   missing.      On   the   8th   July  it   had   reached 
Middletown,  Md.     On  the  13th,  near  Hagerstown,  it  saw'  its  last  fight- 
ing.    On  the  18th,  the  Brigade  left  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and,  going 
by   way  of   Berlin  and   Baltimore,  reached   New  York  on  the   20th. 
Although  not  asked  for  assistance  against  the  Draft  rioters,  the  presence 
of  the  regiments  over-awed  the  mob.     On  the  24th,  the  16th  went  to 
Brattleboro  via  New  Haven,  where  it  was  mustered  out  of  the  service  of 
the  United  States  on  August  10th.     Its  high  morale  is  attested  by  the 
fact  that,   despite  continuous  hardships,  only  three  men  deserted  from 
its  ranks. 


76 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


77 


nothing  more  to  do  with  a  gun."  Internal  evidence— 
a  reference  to  Mosby's  famous  raid— enables  us  to  date 
this  letter  11th  March,  1863. 

Although  "detailed  on  detached  service"  by  his 
postal  duties,  Morris  undoubtedly  learned  much  from 
his  military  experience.  The  'sheltered  life,'  under  the 
eaves  of  a  peculiarly  rigid  home,  gave  place  to  new 
contacts,  and  to  strange  exhibitions  of  the  possibilities 
of  human  nature.  Thus  his  cousin,  writing  on  4th 
November,  1862,  from  Dartmouth  College,  to  con- 
gratulate him  on  his  post  office  appointment,  says: 

"My  reference  to  the  Company  leads  me  to  speak  of  a  fact  of 
which  I  am  assured,  and  which  it  will  not  be  improper  for  you  to 
know,  viz.,  that  you  have  gained  to  a  degree  unexpected  by 
them,  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  all  its  members.  Most  of 
them,  having  a  petty  prejudice  against  a  man  who  has  'been  to 
college,'  did  not  expect  to  like  you.  And  it  gives  me  much 
pleasure  to  know  that  they  have  been  happily  disappointed." 

Morris  enlisted  against  the  better  judgment  of  his 
parents  and  immediate  friends,  who  thought  him  too 
rare  stuff  to  be  given  as  food  for  powder,  and  feared  the 
contaminating  influences  of  the  camp.  Nor  were  they 
left  without  reason  for  their  qualms,  as  his  letters  arrived. 
His  mother,  writing  on  4th  March,  1863,  expresses 
herself  most  forcibly  and  characteristically,  evidently 
with  reference  to  previous  correspondence. 

''Your  letter  to  father  was  a  good  comforting  one  to  us.  I 
presume  you  will  never  indulge  in  such  'trifling'  again.  I  was 
so  perfectly  astounded  to  hear  from  your  own  pen  (any  other 
person's  I  should  have  disbelieved)  that  you  received  'whisky 
rations.'  I  do  hope  there  are  not  many  who  indulge  in  'taking 
a  drop.'  ...  I  should  like  to  know  why  the  government  permits 
that  curse  among  our  young  men  who  have  entered  its  service; 
it  will  be  to  many,  I  fear,  a  worse  enemy  than  thousands  of 
Southern  rebels,  for  they  can  only  kill  the  body,  while  drunken- 


ness destroys  both  body  and  soul  in  hell.  ...  I  fear  that  there 
is  some  such  'Achan'  in  the  camp — the  reason  that  God  does 
not  grant  us  greater  victories  over  our  enemies." 

It  is  fair  to  say  that  his  sister,  Susan,  interposed  with 
a  letter,  in  which  she  deprecated  the  tremendous  'wig- 
gings '  administered  by  the  old  folks,  who  did  not  realize 
the  rigours  of  that  late  winter  in  Virginia. 

Once  more,  his  sister,  Lucy,  with  her  accustomed 
penetration,  saw  that  "the  camp"  could  hardly  preserve 
intact  the  moral  austerities  of  the  New  England  home. 
Writing  on  24th  March,  1863,  she  says: 

"I  can  discover  by  your  letters  how  you  are  developing,  how 
your  character  is  growdng  by  change.  You  are  just  beginning 
to  realize  the  mystery  of  yourself,  and  getting  the  key  which 
makes  the  apparent  opposites  one  and  complete.  ...  It  is  one 
of  the  most  difficult  things  for  a  person  of  almost  purely  literary 
and  intellectual  tastes,  to  estimate  duly  the  practical  side  of  fife. 
Yet  it  is  essential  to  a  comprehensive  manhood.  The  experience 
you  are  having  this  year  will  be  of  value  to  you.  How  much 
you  are  gaining  in  knowledge  of  the  world  and  yourself!  Prob- 
ably this  and  the  next  two  years  are  to  be  the  most  important  of 
your  life,  as  you  are  beginning  to  know  your  powers  and  how  to 
use  them.  Hitherto  you  have  been  occupied  in  receiving, 
hereafter  you  are  to  dispense— with  such  ability  and  resources 
as  you  have." 

Miss  Morris  saw  even  better  than  she  knew — three 
years  later  her  brother  was  in  Europe,  and  had  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  renounced  a  career  in  the  Christian 
ministry.     Well  had  she  earned  the  right  to  exclaim, 

"  I  think  of  3^ou  most  Sunday  evenings— and,  sometimes,  I  feel 
as  if  the  intensity  of  my  wish  to  talk  with  you,  must  form  a  sort 
of  Telegraph  between  us." 

Morris  never  repented  his  enlistment.  His  aunt 
takes  the  point  admirably,  writing  to  him  the  week  after 
Gettysburg : 


I 


78 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


''But  if  you  live  to  return,  to  live  in  peaceful  times,  what  a 
history  you  will  have  of  your  own!" 

His  sister  likewise  perceived  the  benefits  that  balanced 
against  the  sacrifices: 

''I  congratulate  you  upon  your  patriotism.  Its  effect  upon 
yourself  must  be  wholesome.  Mr.  Charles  Dana  wishes  more 
of  the  army  might  feel  as  you  do." 

His  brother  expresses  himself  to  the  same  effect, 
although  with  puritanical  reservations: 

''I  judge  by  your  letter  that  you  are  not  sorry  that  you  en- 
listed. I  am  glad  it  is  so.  I  think  the  motive  which  induced 
you  to  go  will  sustain  you  through  the  Campaign.  I  often 
wonder  if  you  will  come  back  to  us  as  gentle  and  refined  as  you 
went  out  from  us.  I  have  a  great  horror  of  camp  life  and  its 
influences.  Do  the  men  seem  to  have  any  regard  for  the  Sabbath? 
are  they  easily  approached  upon  religious  subjects?" 

Morris  certainly  learned  that,  important  as  this 
outlook  is,  there  are  others.  The  hard  knocks  of  cam- 
paigning left  their  mark,  just  as  his  sister  detected. 
Affection  had  sharpened  her  wits.  The  shy  student  faced 
the  sterner  realities  of  life,  and  was  forced  to  '  give  and 
take'  with  other  men.  Nevertheless,  his  fundamental 
standpoint  had  received  no  shocks  as  yet.  Inspired 
by  the  family  idealism,  and  by  intense  Abolitionist 
principles,  he  had  made  a  great  sacrifice  for  duty.  But 
it  had  been  a  deliberate  sacrifice,  and  the  duty,  with  its 
religious  or  theological  background,  held  him  fast  in 

the  old  ways. 

Accordingly,  in  June,  1863,  we  find  him  correspondmg 
about  the  merits  of  several  Theological  Seminaries  with 
the  Rev.  S.  W.  Boardman,  who  had  been  minister  of  the 
Congregational  church  at  Norwich  during  the  Kimball 
Union  Academy  period.  Mr.  Boardman,  then  resident 
in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  naturally  favored  the  local  institution. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


79 


Moreover,  he  secured  for  Morris  the  refusal  of  the  most 
valuable  scholarship  in  the  gift  of  Auburn  Seminary — 
$170  per  annum  for  three  years.  He  admitted  that 
Andover  w'as  "the  most  scholarly  in  its  course,"  but  held 
that  "  Auburn  is  most  free  from  crotchets,  and  is  eminent 
for  elevating  the  word  of  God."  We  find  him  also 
adverting  to  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York, 
and  saying,  "It  seems  to  me  that  a  course  here  would 
be  better  than  at  New^  York."  True  to  his  musical 
interests,  Morris  had  inquired  about  an  organ,  only  to 
be  told,  "I  do  not  see  any  immediate  prospect  of  one." 
While  Morris  w^as  a  boy,  he  had  formed  a  great  admira- 
tion for  Boardman,  to  whom  he  often  refers  in  his 
Private  Journal,  and  recurring,  no  doubt,  to  some  expres- 
sion of  this,  his  correspondent  adds: 

''You  seem  to  value  my  society  too  highly;  it  could  be  of  no 
advantage  to  you  except  from  kind  feeling,  and  the  gratification 
of  friendly  intercourse.  Count  it  as  nothing  in  the  decision,  but 
if  you  come  I  shall  be  delighted  to  have  it  so." 

Mainly  for  financial  reasons,  Morris  was  to  make  no 
decision  on  his  return  home.  He  joined  the  staft'  of  his 
alma  mater,  as  Tutor  in  Greek  and  Mathematics,  and 
spent  the  academic  year  18G3-4  in  residence  at  Hanover, 
N.  H. 

After  the  lapse  of  fifty  years,  and  owing  to  the  fact 
that  correspondence  with  his  family  w^as  unnecessary, 
few  intimate  details  concerning  his  service  as  Tutor 
can  be  recovered.  He  taught  Greek  and  mathematics 
to  the  Sophomore  and  Freshman  Classes.  No  events  of 
moment  seem  to  have  marked  the  college  year.  As  at 
Royalton,  and  in  the  army,  he  was  a  man  greatly  beloved. 
The  qualities  which  so  won  upon  his  colleagues  and 
pupils  later  were  in  evidence  already,  as  the  following 


80 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


letter  attests.  It  is  from  a  Sophomore  of  1863-4, 
now  the  distinguished  former  Chief  Justice  of  Samoa 
(under  joint  appointment  of  Great  Britain,  Germany 
and  the  United  States),  Governor  General  of  the  PhiHp- 
pine  Islands,  and  Minister  to  Spain,  Judge  Henry  Clay 
Ide,  of  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 

"Fifty  years  is  a  long  vista  across  which  to  call  up  the  portrait 
of  one  whom  I  knew  only  as  my  instructor  in  mathematics  and 
Greek  for  one  college  year  at  Dartmouth.  Yet  I  can  see  him 
fairly  well,  a  slender  young  man,  of  Ught  complexion,  with  a 
scholarly,  thoughtful  face,  and  quiet  gentlemanly  manners, 
courteous  to  all  the  young  students  who  had  the  benefit  of  his 
thorough  scholarship,  and  zealous  to  be  of  real  assistance  to  all 
who  came  under  his  instruction.  Such  is  the  picture  of  George 
Sylvester  Morris,  as  I  call  it  up  from  its  dusty  recess  in  my  brain. 

*'I  knew  him  only  in  the  class  room.  Here  he  was  kindly, 
sympathetic,  helpful,  an  excellent  instructor,  and  manifestly  an 
accomplished  scholar  whom  all  his  pupils  respected,  although  the 
full  professors,  older  and  more  experienced  men,  inspired  us  with 
more  awe.  Personal  intimacies  between  students  and  members 
of  the  college  Faculty  were  unusual,  and  a  student  who  attained 
such  intimacy  was  looked  upon  by  his  classmates  either  with 
envy  or  suspicion,  and  was  called  'a  faculty  dog,'  and  to  him  was 
attributed  all  information  which  the  faculty  might  obtain  as  to 
the  real  culprits  in  college  deviltry.  For  this  reason,  among 
others,  I  did  not  have  that  personal  acquaintance  with  Tutor 
Morris,  which  undoubtedly  might  have  given  me  much  pleasure 
and  benefit;  but  I  know  that  he  appreciated  me  personally  for 
all  I  was  worth,  probably  more,  and  that  of  course  attracted  me 

to  him. 

"  I  remember  that  on  one  occasion  in  the  autumn  of  1863,  when  I 
was  a  sophomore,  he  sent  me  to  the  blackboard  to  work  out  some 
problem  in  the  calculus,  and  I  covered  the  board  with  figures  with- 
out reaching  the  solution,  but  could  see  it  some  distance  ahead. 
I  asked  for  a  table  of  logarithms,  which  he  gave  me,  and  then  the 
result  came  all  right,  but  by  a  very  round-about  process.  He  said 
that  was  entirely  correct,  but  proceeded  to  show  me  a  shorter  way 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


81 


to  do  the  work.  He,  however,  must  have  marked  me  perfect  on 
that  occasion,  because  my  standing  in  mathematics  for  that 
whole  term  came  out  marked  perfect.  I  knew  at  the  time  that 
he  was  afraid  I  was  going  to  break  my  record,  and  seemed  as 
an.^ous  as  I  was.  The  satisfaction  that  plainly  showed  itself 
on  his  face  when  I  finally  landed  on  the  goal,  through  a  tedious 
but  strictly  logical  mathematical  method,  told  me  that  he  was  on 
my  side  m  my  tussle  with  that  particular  proposition,  and  not 
like  some  instructors,  eager  to  catch  one  tripping.  So  there 
was  always  a  silent  bond  of  sympathy  between  him  and  me  as 
long  as  he  remained  connected  with  the  college. 

"I  never  saw  him  after  1864.  But  I  am  very  glad  to  have  an 
opportunity  to  give  these  slight  reminiscences  of  the  impressions 
made  upon  my  youthful  mind  by  the  scholarly  and  earnest 
young  man— not  so  many  years  older  than  myself— whom  we  all 
respected  and  admired  as  'Tutor'  Morris." 

Professor  Horace  Goodhue,  of  Northfield,  Minnesota, 
a  member  of  the  Freshman  class,  writes  to  the  same 
effect— Morris  "was  a  courteous  gentleman.  My  im- 
pressions of  him  were  wholly  pleasing.''  While  the 
Rev.  Dr.  C.  H.  Merrill,  of  St.  Johnsbury,  Vermont, 
also  a  Freshman  then,  says: 

"I  have  very  pleasant  memories  of  'Tutor  Morris.'  He  came 
to  us,  as  I  recall,  in  the  midst  of  the  Civil  War,  the  faU  of  '63,  the 
beginning  of  our  Freshman  year.  He  was  fresh  from  military 
service.  ...  He  came  with  the  prestige  of  cradition  for  fine 

scholarship  and  high  rank  in  his  class He  commanded 

our  respect  for  his  ability,  and  his  fine  personal  traits  made  us 
esteem  him  most  highly.  It  was  a  day  of  small  things  for  the 
College  in  comparison  with  the  present.  The  classes  were 
small,  and  he  was  the  only  Tutor  that  year.  In  this  way  he 
came  into  competition  with  the  professors  of  long  standing  in  his 
care  of  his  class,  and  I  am  sure  he  ranked  well  with  them  in  both 
our  regard  for  his  scholarship  and  our  affection  for  his  person. 
He  was  quiet,  gentle  and  manly  withal.  I  recall  no  incident  that 
mars  our  kindly  memories  of  'Tutor  Morris.'" 
7 


82 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


83 


Apart  from  the  experience  gained,  we  may  take  it  for 
granted  that  the  most  important  event  of  the  Tutorship 
occurred  at  the  close.  In  July,  1864,  Morris  proceeded 
to  the  degree  of  M.A.  According  to  the  regulations  in 
force  then,  he  delivered  an  address,  in  candidacy  for 
the  degree,  at  the  Dartmouth  Commencement.  This  is 
still  preserved,  and  bears  the  mark  of  theexaminers  "A+.'* 
The  subject  was  characteristic  of  the  author:  Spirit- 
ualization  the  Law  and  Goal  of  Human  Progress.  The 
essay  retains  interest  for  several  reasons.  Morris 
adopted  a  standpoint  which,  though  commonplace  now, 
was  unfamiliar  then  in  the  English  world,  nowhere  more 
than  in  New  England.  Moreover,  his  mind  had  been 
in  movement,  if  unconsciously.  The  tremendous  struggle 
of  the  Civil  War  brought  a  new  sense  of  proportion. 
Like  all  armed  conflicts,  it  was  fought  out  in  the  mire 
of  secular  *  brute  facts.'  It  therefore  raised  momentous 
worldly  interests  to  the  same  level  of  importance  with 
Morris's  former,  and  nigh  exclusive,  theological  pre- 
occupations. Nor  did  he  detect  any  contradiction  in 
this.  Inexpugnable  principles  shone  through  the  passion, 
crueltv  and  horror  of  embattled  strife.  In  short,  the 
young  man  had  been  led  to  adopt  a  broader  view  of  life 
and,  as  a  consequence,  the  chrysalis  of  his  upbringing 
was  less  impervious.  A  few  significant  passages  from  the 
magistral  discourse  serve  to  hint  the  transformation — 
we  are  a  long  way  from  the  temper  of  the  Private  Journal. 

*'\Ve  have  therefore  on  admitted  facts  of  history  and  a  liberal 
analog^',  the  following  three-fold  division  into  stages  of  the 
passage  of  the  human  race  from  its  rudest  beginning  to  that 
ideal  goal  to  which  refined  art  and  religious  expectation  unite  in 
pointing: 

"First,  animal  lawlessness: 

''Second,  Reason  partially  develope(^  and  the  animal  nature 
more  or  less  arbitrarily  controlled  by  it: 


"  Third,  Reason  reacting  against  the  bounds  which  it  has  itself 
established,  in  the  interest  of  its  o^ti  development,  and  the 
spiritual  m  man  finally  predominant. 

''The  use  of  law  is  to  restrain  the  race,  during  the  period  of  its 
untutored  development,  within  the  bounds  of  that  positive  order 
without  which  progress  is  impossible.  .  .  .  Not  that  law  is 
intrinsically  transient  or  other  than  eternal,  but  that  as  assuming 
visible  form  upon  the  statute-book  and  requiring  to  be  exerted 
by  force,  the  cultivated  and  victorious  reason  finds  it  essentially 
odious.  Two  things  apparently  run  counter  to  law:  the  animal 
nature  which  demands  license  and  is  destined  to  succumb,  and 
the  rational  nature,  which  would  not  wantonly  overthrow  it  but 
would  suspend  it  by  the  noble  and  everlasting  principles  of  love 
and  liberty. 

^  "We  rightly  look  for  the  characteristics  of  the  age,  and  the 
signs  of  the  times,  to  that  land  where  the  theory  and  practice  of 
politics  and  society  least  conflict  with  liberal  and  correct  views 
of  truth  and  right.  Our  own  country  now  illustrates  the  double 
opposition  just  named. 

''The  worst  elements  of  our  nation,  under  able  guidance,  have 
excited  and  wonderfully  organized  an  armed  opposition  to  the 
just  authority  of  government.     This  is  the  lower  nature  lusting 
for  unshackled  Hcense.     Its  ends  are  infernal  and,  if  secured 
minister  to  barbarism.     It  is  unreasoning  and  passionate,  and 
can  be  met  only  by  force.     It  is  destined  to  complete  suppression 
unless  truth  is  to  be  branded  with  insult,  God  seemingly  banished 
from  history,  and  the  bestial  in  man  to  dominate  the  rational. 
But  there  is  also  that  general  uneasiness  under  the  restraints  of 
law.  ...  It  is  reactionary  in   character,   of  no  permanently 
dangerous  tendency,  and  beneficial.     It  is  to  be  regarded  as  no 
sign  of  degeneracy.     It  is  not  to  be  opposed  by  brute  force,  but 
guided  and  modified  by  reason.  .  .  .  The  short-sighted  complain 
of  increasing  irreligion.     True,  there  is  not  that  respect  for  the 
ritual  observances  of  religion  which  these  received  in  a  less 
questioning  and  intelHgent  age.    The  progress  of  refined  intelli- 
gence forbids  one  to  regard  with  genuine  esteem  aught  in  or- 
ganized    religion    except    its    substantial    verities.     Increasing 
apprehension  of  these  verities  and  advancing  spiritual  culture, 
however  they  may  seem  for  the  time  to  foster  irreverence,  it  were 


84 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


I " 


truly  irreverent  to  regard  as  tending  to  anything  other  than  an' 
ultimate  establishment  on  an  inexpugnable  basis  of  a  generally 
diffused  and  authentic  religious  spirit.  One  of  tolerably  unfet- 
tered spiritual  apprehension  can  but  feel,  and  know  by  daily 
observation,  that  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  age  is  enlarg- 
ing, that  any  apparently  irreverent  elements  now  manifested  in 
it  are  largely  factitious  and  transient,  and  that  men  are  coming 
to  know  (however  distant  be  the  day  of  perfect  knowledge)  how 
much  and  what  must  be  submissively  and  may  be  honourably 
received  of  Truths  whose  denial  contradicts  the  dehverances  of 
consciousness  or  revelation,  though  themselves  too  high  for  the 
present  mastery  of  human  understanding.  .  .  .  Infidelity  is  now 
not  denial  of  God  and  duty.  Renan,  its  most  recent  apostle,  is 
obliged  to  humanise — which  in  the  last  analysis  is  to  spirituahse — 
as  will  be  seen  when  the  absurd  notion  of  a  normal  conflict  be- 
tween the  finite  and  the  infinite  shall  have  been  supplanted  by 
the  better  conception  of  their  harmony  in  mutual  aid.  The 
variety  of  sects  and  schools  only  marks  a  transitional  phase  of 
progress  from  the  formal  and  old  to  the  new  and  free.  From 
the  homogeneous  society  passes  to  the  heterogeneous,  to  be 
unified  again  in  the  general  acceptance  and  practice  of  absolute 
truth.  .  .  . 

''The  hand  that  traced  on  canvass  the  divine  glories  of  the 
Transfiguration,  was  guided  by  an  ethereal  soul,  thoroughly 
inspired  with  faith  and  power  to  conceive  and  reproduce  the  fine 
reahties  of  the  subject.  Like  inspiration  rests  upon  the  human 
race,  to  reahse  in  thought  and  believingly  aspire  after  the 
nobler  possibilities  of  its  own  no  less  divine  forthcoming  — 
nay  progressive  transfiguration  out  of  the  uncomeliness  of 
natural  deformity  and  weakness  into  heavenly  beauty  and 
power." 

We  also  possess  the  following  lines,  of  date  29th 
January,  1864,  which  reveal  Morris's  attitude  and 
dominant  interest  at  the  time;  farther,  they  lay  bare  the 
motive  that  led  him  to  make  the  great  sacrifice  of  enlist- 
ment. Their  motto  is  the  famous  phrase  from  Virgil's 
Mneid  (II.  291),  Sat  patrioe  Priamoque  datum. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS  85 

America,  thou  crown  of  all  the  world, 

On  whom  the  thunderbolts  of  war  are  hurled 

By  traitorous  hands— how  infamously  vile!— 

0  land  that  art  so  meekly  mute,  the  while 

Red,  smoking  battlefields  deface  thy  plains. 

Be  thou  immortal!    Let  eternal  gains 

Rise  from  these  horrid  pools  of  reeking  gore 

To  grace  and  bless  thy  name  for  evermore! 

Olympic  gods  by  no  unjust  decree 

Can  blight  our  hopes,  O  fatherland,  of  thee. 

For  thou,  though  broad  and  fair,  yet  more,  art  fraught 

With  freedom's  life,  which  ne'er  can  come  to  naught. 

Snatched  from  the  reckless  lust  of  foreign  kings. 

To  thee  Humanity  aspirant  brings 

Her  gladsome  praise  and  warmest  love  and  hope; 

So  may  thy  life  and  power  have  boundless  scope! 

But  let  ten  thousand  curses  blast  his  tongue 

Who  dares  suggest  thy  hills  and  vales  among 

Truce  with  thy  foes,  tho'  hellish  treason's  dart, 

Aimed  at  the  nation's  life,  should  strike  his  heart; 

Or  overcast  by  fancied  fate's  rebuff, 

But  lisps,  "for  thee,  my  Fatherland,  enough!" 

So  far  had  the  secular  come  to  mate  with  the  spiritual 
for' Morris! 

"The  hard  turmoil  of  the  pitiless  sea 
Turns  the  pebble  to  beauteous  gem. 
They  who  escape  the  agony 
Miss  also  the  diadem." 

On  the  other  hand,  despite  contact  with  the  larger, 
grosser  world,  the  old  theological  convictions  appear  to 
stand  fast  untouched.  This  prayer,  written  evidently 
to  be  read  on  opening  a  class,  preserves  not  merely  the 
inward  temper  but  the  verbal  habit  of  New  England 
Puritanism: 

"0  Lord  God,  in  Whom  alone  our  strength  hes,  we  humbly 
come  to  Thee.    We  are  utterly  carnal,  sold  under  sin.    Our 


86 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


87 


moral  righteousness  is  as  filthy  rags;  and  there  is  no  health  in  us. 
Do  Thou,  most  merciful  and  tender  Father,  become  indeed,  in  a 
most  hving  and  glorious  way,  the  Father  of  our  spirits.  Redeem 
us  from  our  utter,  sickening  spiritual  destitution.  Heal  our 
putrifying  moral  sores.  Clothe  our  dry  bones  with  flesh.  Vivify 
us  in  the  way  everlasting.  And  thus  illustrate  Thine  infinite 
mercy  and  love,  most  signally  manifested  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord.    Amen." 

When  we  review  the  career  to  this  point,  we  cannot  but 
see  that  ^Morris  conformed  to  a  type — an  unusual  type, 
moreover.  As  a  general  rule,  the  individual  life  wins 
to  a  system  of  central  control  through  many  trials,  or  at 
the  close  of  long  probation.  Uncertain  of  itself,  it 
follows  diverse,  even  incompatible,  aims  for  brief  intervals 
and,  only  after  numerous  slips,  achieves  that  concentra- 
tion upon  a  single  end  which  is  the  distinct  mark  of 
personality.  Thus,  as  has  been  said  aptly,  "Life  begins 
in  action  and  ends  in  conduct."  Morris  belonged  to 
the  small  group  of  exceptions.  Very  early, — say,  when 
of  deliberate  choice  he  joined  the  Congregational  society, 
— he  subordinated  the  manifold  details  of  human  experi- 
ence to  a  coercive  conviction  and,  as  a  result,  grasped  a 
purpose  that  governed  all  his  reckonings.  Moral 
goodness,  as  conceived  by  the  NeW'  England  conscience, 
provided  him  with  a  ready-made  'universe.'  Here, 
inflexible  standards  of  judgment  kept  austere  order  at 
once  by  their  unquestioned  theoretical  truth  and  by 
their  instant  practical  application.  The  boy  was  born 
old;  not  'with  a  silver  spoon  in  his  mouth,'  but  with 
what,  as  we  often  forget,  is  no  less  'unfair'  and  influen- 
tial— a  matured  bent,  at  once  solving  and  postponing 
the  most  diflficult  problems  of  existence. 

Circumstances  being  favorable,  such  a  precocious  or, 
perhaps,  premature  adjustment  may  contrive  to  persist 


till  death;  but  at  a  price.     A  man  may  grow  irresponsive 
or  numb,  some  window^s  of  his  soul  being  darkened.     On 
the  other  hand,  if  stress  lead  to  desertion  of  youthful 
convictions,  this  also  is  at  a  price.     The  pangs  of  change 
are  proportionate  to  the  strength  of  the  original  certainty. 
The  transformation,  commonly  slow  and  silent,  event- 
uates at  length  in  a  clear  issue  w^hich,  even  if  hostile, 
must  be  met  full  in  the  face.     The  thoroughness  of  the 
old  belief  conditions  the  thoroughness  of  the  awakening, 
and  renders    its    significance    more    profound.     Morris 
was   destined   to   forego   the   theological  framework  of 
Truth  as  he  had  it  from  Puritanism,  and  to  pass  through 
the  darkness  of  doubt  to  the  radiance  of  reasonable 
faith.     He    thus    epitomized    the    most    characteristic 
movement  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  emerged  from 
the    struggle    a    significant,    because   a    representative, 
personality.     Arthur  Clough  has  told  the  story. 

''For  while  the  tired  waves,  vainly  breaking, 
Seem  here  no  painful  inch  to  gain, 
Far  back,  through  creeks  and  inlets  making, 
Comes  silent,  flooding  in,  the  main." 


B 


CHAPTER  IV 
Union  Theological  Seminary.   Europe.    Transition 


(1864-70) 

Duties  at  Dartmouth  completed,  Morris,  now  nigh 
twenty-four  years  old,  found  himself  able  to  realize  his 
plan,  long  cherished,  of  direct  preparation  for  the 
Christian  ministry.  In  September,  1864,  he  entered 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  as  a  member 
of  the  Class  of  1867.  Undoubtedly,  the  project  and 
the  institution  had  been  canvassed  anxiously  with 
family  and,  in  all  likelihood,  with  academic  friends. 
But  information  from  these  sources,  about  the  precise 
reasons  for  his  choice,  fails  us  now.  Fortunately,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Edward  H.  Curtis,  minister  of  the  Woodlawn 
Park  Presbyterian  Church,  Chicago,  a  member  of  the 
same  Class,  is  able  to  hint  a  main  cause,  one,  moreover, 
calculated  to  exert  great  influence  with  Morris. 

"I  am  strongly  of  the  impression,  that  he  chose  Union  Semin- 
ary because  Henry  B.  Smith,  a  noted  man  in  the  field  of  philoso- 
phy and  theology,  was  Professor  of  Theology.  Professor  Smith 
held  a  unique  place  among  the  theological  teachers  of  his  day. 
A  man  of  wide  and  varied  learning,  a  great  reader,  with  a  keen 
intellect  and  a  warm  heart,  he  won  the  confidence  of  liis  pupils 
for  his  intellectual  honesty  and  his  broad  catholicity." 

The  later  issue  of  this  confidence  in  Smith  was  destined 
to  be  more  momentous  than  Morris  then  knew.  For 
it  is  well  understood  that  the  teacher,  discerning  the 
philosophical  ability  and  the  intellectual  perplexity  of 
the  pupil,  advised  him  to  forego  the  ministry,  and  to 

88 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


89 


proceed  to  Europe,  there  to  acquire  the  farther  equip- 
ment necessary  for  a  philosophical  professorship.  Dr. 
William  G.  T.  Shedd,  the  distinguished  occupant  of  the 
chair  of  Sacred  Literature,  concurred  in  this  advice. 

Union  Seminary,  now  so  remarkably  transformed  and 
expanded,  w^as  then  in  occupancy  of  its  modest  early 
home  at  9  University  Place,  between  Sixth  and  Eighth 
Streets,  near  Washington  Square,  where  everything  was 
on  a  Spartan  scale.  Weekly  board  in  New  York  City 
at  $3.50  sounds  rather  mythical,  but  it  was  indicative 
of  the  situation,  as  was  the  annual  tuition  fee  of  SIO. 
Notwithstanding  its  origin  in  the  dissatisfaction  of  the 
New  School  in  the  Presbyterian  denomination  with  the 
''high-toned"  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Old  School,  which 
had  resulted  in  the  attacks  upon  Albert  Barnes  and 
Lyman  Beecher,  Union  was  thoroughly  evangelical,  a 
hot-bed  of  temperance  and  anti-slavery  teaching.* 
The  founders,  of  1835-6,  set  forth  their  aims  as  follows: 

"It  is  the  design  of  the  founders  to  provide  a  theological 
seminary  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  and  most  growing  com- 
munity of  America,  around  which  all  men  of  moderate  views  and 
feelings,  who  desire  to  live  free  from  party  strife,  and  to  stand 
aloof  from  all  extremes  of  doctrinal  speculation,  practical  radic- 
alism, and  ecclesiastical  domination,  may  cordially  and  affec- 
tionately rail}-." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  H.  H.  Stebbins,  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  a  member  of  Morris's  Class,  has  been  kind  enough 
to  give  his  impression  of  "the  atmosphere  of  the  Semin- 
ary theologically."     He  records, 

"It  was  a  seminary  where  the  extremes  met — the  extremes, 
I  mean,  of  the  radically  conservative  and  the  liberal  types  of 

Cf.  The  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  the  City  of  New  York:  His- 
torical and  Biographical  Sketches  of  its  First  Fifty  Years;  and  The  Union 
Theological  Seminary  in  the  City  of  Xew  York:  Another  Decade  of  its 
History  (1888-98),  G.  L.  Prentiss. 


90 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK  OF 


personality  and  instruction.  Professor  Shedd  was  the  extremely 
conservative  professor.  Professor  Henry  B.  Smith  was  the 
genial,  and  persuasive,  Uberal  professor.  Professor  Hitchcock 
seemed  to  many  to  be  on  the  danger  line,  so  far  as  some  of  his 
historical  interpretations  were  concerned.  He  was  by  far  the 
best  preacher  among  the  professors.  He  was  extremely  rhet- 
orical and  had  a  great  many  ardent  followers.  Professor  Smith, 
however,  was  regarded  as  the  safest  and  sanest  man  of  all.  Both 
Professor  Smith  and  Professor  Shedd  were  teachers  of  theology, 
and  all  three  of  the  professors  I  have  named  were  conservative 
in  contrast  to  what  Union  Seminary  stands  for  today.  I  am 
not  speaking  in  the  disparagement  of  Union.  So  far  from  that, 
I  believe  that,  were  the  three  professors  in  question  alive  today, 
it  would  be  found  that  their  views,  in  the  light  of  all  that  has 
intervened  since  they  taught,  would  be  severely  modified." 

Dr.    William   Hutton,    of   Philadelphia,    also   of   the 
Class  of  1867,  recalls  his  impressions  of  the  Faculty. 

"In  the  years  1864-67,  a  very  large  number  of  students  [the 
average  attendance  was  110]  attended  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  New  York  City.  They  came  from  a  number  of 
colleges.  East  and  West— from  Yale,  Dartmouth,  Williams, 
Hamilton,  and  many  other  institutions.*  They  were  attracted 
to  the  Union  Seminary  by  the  fame  of  its  Faculty.  The  pro- 
fessors in  their  various  departments  were  not  excelled  by  the 
professors  in  any  similar  institution  in  America.  Indeed,  some 
of  them  were  unrivaled.  Professor  Henry  B.  Smith,  the  meta- 
physician and  theologian,  was  professor  of  Systematic  Theology. 
Dr.  W.  G.  T.  Shedd  was  professor  of  Biblical  Theology  and 
Exegesis.  Professor  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock  was  the  learned  and 
brilliant  professor  of  Church  History.  Dr.  Skinner  was  professor 
of  Pastoral  Theology;  and  Dr.  Vandyke,  who  came  from  Beirut, 

♦The  principal  contributors  were  those:  Williams  18;  Yale  16; 
Hamilton  14;  University  of  Vermont  8;  Beloit  and  Union  7  each;  Amherst 
and  University  of  the  City  of  New  York  6  each;  Dartmouth  and  Wesleyan 
3  each.  There  were  but  nine  non-graduates.  Michigan  men  will 
learn  with  interest,  that  Martin  L.  D'Ooge,  afterwards  professor  of 
Greek  at  Ann  Arbor,  was  a  member  of  the  Class  of  1868,  and  so  was  in 
residence  with  Morris  for  five  months. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


91 


Syria,  to  complete  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  Arabic 
language,  was  instructor  in  Hebrew." 

As  was  customary  in  these  days,  Morris  found  himself 
confronted  with  a  prescribed  course.     There  were  four 
departments;  (1)  Biblical,   (2)  Theological,  (3)  Homil- 
etical,  (4)  Historical.     Stress  was  laid  upon  the  first  in 
the  Junior  year,  upon  the  second  in  the  Middle  year, 
and  upon  the  third  in  the  Senior  year.     The  first  year, 
or   Junior    Class,    studied    (1)    Hebrew   grammar    and 
exercises;    portions  of    the  Pentateuch  and  Psalms  in 
Hebrew;    lectures    on    Xew    Testament    Introduction; 
exegesis  of  the  Four  Gospels  in  the  Greek  Harmony: 
(2)  Natural  Theology;  the  Evidences;  Inspiration  and 
Canon  of  the  Scriptures;  (3)  Lectures  on  the  Church; 
(4)  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  World  before  Christ. 
The  second  year,   or  Middle  Class,  took   (1)    Hebrew 
exegesis;  Isaiah,  the  Minor  Prophets;  Greek  exegesis; 
Epistles  of  the  Xew  Testament;   (2)   Introduction  to 
Theology;     God's     Nature,     Attributes,     and     Works; 
Anthropology,  including  the  Doctrine  of  Sin;  (3)  Lectures 
on  Pastoral  Theology;  (4)  the  Life  of  Christ;  Historv  of 
the  Apostolic  Church.     Unfortunately,  we  possess  no 
direct  records  of  Morris's  reaction  to  the  city  or  to  the 
intellectual  environment.     On  the  other  hand,  we  do 
know  that  he  was  most  influenced  by  Smith,  and  that 
he  disliked  Hebrew,  chiefly  on  account  of  the  personality 
of  the  teacher,  *'who  rubbed  most  of  us  the  wrong  way"; 
that,  as  a  result,  he  vowed  *'to  outflank  it  by  the  Sept- 
uagint."      By  a  happy  accident,  records  are   preserved 
of  the  books  bought  or  read  by  him  between  August, 
1864,  and  January,  1866.     These  lists  intimate  not  a 
little.     Technical    theology   failed    to    attract   him,    an 
inference  confirmed  by  a  letter  written  by  him  to  the 
secretary  of  the  Class  in  :\Iay,  1882: 


92 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


"I  was  gratified  to  be  recognized  as  of  the  Class  of  '67  in 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  even  though  my  connection  with 
the  Class  was  severed  just  at  the  middle  of  the  course,  and  the 
study  of  theology  has  never  been  renewed  by  me."* 

On  the  other  hand,  he  read  widely  in  philosophy, 
history  and  literature,  and  made  occasional  excursions 
into  science.  The  entries  contain  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty-three  titles;  the  following  are  symp- 
tomatic. Hazard  On  the  Will;  Pascal;  Aristotle^s 
Metaphysics;  Ackermann's  Christian  Element  in  Plato; 
Chalybaus'  Speculative  Philosophy;  Mill's  Logic,  Comte 
and  Liberty;  Hamilton's  Discussions;  Spencer's  First  Prin- 
ciples and  Classification  of  the  Sciences;  Lewes's  Comte; 
Buckle's  Essays;  Schw^egler's  History  of  Philosophy; 
Draper's  Intellectual  Development;  Kant's  Critique  of 
Pure  Reason;  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  History;  Clough's 
Poems;  Taylor's  Philip  van  Artevelde;  Mendelssohn's 
Letters;  Coleridge's  Works;  Carlyle's  Essays;  David 
Gray's  Poems;  the  histories  by  T.  Arnold,  Gibbon, 
Merivale,  Pressensee,  Milman,  Hallam  and  A.  P.  Stanley; 
Huxleys'  Essays,  and  other  works  on  science.  It  is 
plain  that  no  considerations  of  confessional  orthodoxy 
had  influence  upon  his  line  of  reading.  Moreover,  he 
could  still  burst  into  rhyme,  as  those  verses,  written  in 

1864,  attest. 

1864—1865 

Die  into  History 
Reeling  old  year! 
Storm-clouds  of  mystery, 
Fable-bom,  drear. 
Hang  on  his  rear! 

*  After  Fifteen  Years:  Report  of  the  Class  of  1867,  of  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  Netv  York.     Edited  by  Henry  M.  Booth  (1882). 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS  93 

Weave  thy  new  History 
Welcome — new  year! 
Publish  thy  mystery: 
Hope,  the  far-seen, 
Overrides  fear. 

Shakespeare 

Shakespeare,  of  name  undying! 

Thy  fleshly  heart,  low  lying. 

Responsive  beats  no  more 

As  in  the  days  of  yore, 

To  vexed  humanity's  deep  sighing. 

But  in  thy  living  pages, 

'Twill  need  no  keen-eyed  sages 

Forever  to  descry 

Such  life-blood  coursing  high 

As  feeds  the  strength  of  all  the  ages. 

Two  short  papers  survive  from  this  period.  Their 
date  is  February,  1865,  and  they  were  wTitten  evidently 
to  be  read  at  a  student  society.  The  topics  are — The 
Practice  of  Preaching  among  Theological  Students  while 
still  in  the  Seminary,  and  Artist,  Poet,  Preacher — the 
Greatest  of  These  is  Which'i  Both  betray  a  maturity, 
and  a  vein  of  irony,  due  to  unrest  or  dissatisfaction, 
scarcely  characteristic  of  the  average  seminarian. 
Indeed,  as  we  shall  see,  Morris's  contemporaries  noted 
just  these  qualities.  One  would  like  to  have  heard  the 
discussion  elicited  by  the  following  passages. 

"From  the  circumstances  of  their  previous  life,  they  [the 
seminarians]  are  not  so  fully  prepared  in  personal  experience 
and  ripe  study  and  thought  as  they  should  be.  .  .  .  They  need 
more  of  time  devoted  to  preparation  than  do  those  entering  the 
legal  or  medical  profession,  since  these  have  to  do  with  specific 
and  in  general  easily  defined  topics  or  cures,  whereby  nothing  is 
required  but  to  apply  well-known  rules;  while  clergymen  need 
famiharity  with  the  multitudious  phases  of  character  and  modes 


i; 


94 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


95 


of  spiritual  development;  to  appreciate  these  properly  mature 
study  and  reflection  are  indispensably  requisite.  .  .  .  With  no 
proper  conception  of  the  magnitude  and  vital  import  of  the 
truths  which  they  are  to  vindicate  and  apply,  with  nothing  in 
many  cases  of  fixed  and  hearty  belief  arising  from  independent 
investigation,  they  suppose  the  mere  formal  mastery  by  the 
memory  of  a  set  of  prescribed  doctrines  to  be  a  sufficient  outfit 
for  their  life's  work,  as  though  the  course  of  study  and  training 
in  the  Theological  Seminary  were  like  an  apprenticeship  for  the 
practice  of  a  mechanical  art.  No  amount  of  emotional  piety 
can  meet  the  want  of  thorough  and  thoughtful  mental  culture 
in  one  who  proposes  to  unfold  and  enforce  truths  which  the 
angels  desire  to  look  into.  .  .  .  Truly  such  strangely  interpret 
Paul's  admission  as  to  the  foolishness  of  preaching.  .  .  . 

''  The  practice  of  preaching  while  yet  students  in  the  Seminary 
impHes  too  low  an  estimate  of  liberal  studies.  Not  to  speak  of 
their  influence  upon  the  preacher  as  an  antidote  for  narrowness 
of  views  and  illiberal  dogmatism  in  opinion  (on  which,  alas, 
experience  shows  the  most  sincere  religious  character  to  have  no 
preventive  and  but  little  palliative  influence),  these  studies  are 
increasingly  common  among  the  masses.  Their  influence  is 
growing  with  amazing  rapidity.  ...  As  things  are  now,  they 
are  likely  to  be  misinterpreted  so  as  to  furnish  the  short-sighted, 
and  many  sincere  men  who  have  not  time  or  ability  to  examine 
them,  with  arguments  for  infidelity.  Now  religion,  in  its  com- 
monest present  acceptation,  involves  the  support  of  certain 
dogmas  in  the  form  of  verbal  propositions  which  constitute  a 
great  part  of  our  real  or  supposed  knowledge.  The  belief  in 
them  ...  is  likely  to  be  affected  by  such  generally  accredited 
and  well  substantiated  facts  as  do  really,  or  may  seem  to,  in- 
vahdate  them.  In  either  case,  the  defender  of  rehgion  from  the 
pulpit,  who  is  not  familiar  with  the  facts  and  their  proper  explan- 
ation, deserves  not,  and  will  not  receive,  the  full  respect  of  the 
generality  of  hearers.  Nay,  he  wastes  his  influence  with  many, 
appearing  positively  ridiculous. 

''The  practice  obstructs  the  advancement  of  theology.  This 
is  a  progressive  science.  .  .  .  The  increasing  light  of  accumulat- 
ing experience  and  continued  reflection  varies  considerably  the 
verbal  expression  of  the  objects  of  Christian  faith.     That  there 


is  reason  for  farther  change  cannot  be  logically  denied  on  any 
ground,  and  is  particularly  evident  to  many,  since,  were  this  not 
so,  it  is  incredible  with  them  that  certain  dogmas  should  be 
entertained  for  a  moment  in  this  19th  century.  In  their  view,— 
and  I  think  it  is  just,— nothing  but  the  inconsiderateness  w^th 
which  theological  students  found  themselves  on  a  prescriptive 
faith  .  .  .  prevents  theology  from  a  considerable  and  speedy 
enfranchisement  from  the  puerilities  and  mistakes  of  darker 
ages." 

"Art,  poetry  and  religion  are  the  actual  and  representative 
expression   of   humanity— the   one   sentimental    and   ocularly 
discerned;  the  next  imaginative,  the  exponent  of  creative  power; 
the  last  moral,  and  the   preeminent  index  of  character. 
Let  divine  power  accomplish  its  utmost  for  the  religious  life  of 
man,  it  still  transcends  Onmipotence  to  do  more  for  him  in  this 
respect  than  develop  his  underived  potential  spiritual  posses- 
sions without  making  him  prseter-human- a  thing  which  no  one, 
since  the  days  of  apotheosis,  has  a  right  to  look  for.  .  .  .  History 
most  amply  justifies  our  implied  allegation  of  what  may  be  called 
the  spontaneity  of  the  trio  under  consideration.     Their  univer- 
sality, the  absence  of  special  external  causes  which  could  be  sup- 
posed to  account  for  them  by  force,  and  the  conscious  free-will 
of  man,  combine  to  show  conclusively  that  art,  poetry  and  re- 
ligion are  ultimate  facts  among  men.    Nascitur,  non  fit,  truly 
describes  man  regarded  as  the  living  subject  of  each.  ... 

"The  consideration  of  more  recent  times  is  unnecessary  to 
furnish  testimony  to  the  universality,   spontaneousness,   and 
alliance  of  religion  and,  as  they  may  now  be  called,  its  servants, 
poetry  and  art.     This  only  has  almost  ^vithout  exception  been 
peculiar  to  the  case  thus  far,— that,  while  the  poet  and  artist, 
except  when  the  subserviency  of  their  functions  to  religion 
degenerated    into  servility,   have  wrought  largely  under  the 
mastery  of  passion,  with  a  dominant  sentiment  of  .love  for  their 
work,  the  religious  functionary  and  the  devotee  have  lacked  this 
vivifying  element.     Religious  love  was  rare  indeed  previous  to 
the  incarnate  revelation  of  God  as  Love,  and  since,  even  to  this 
day,  we  know  too  well  how  seldom  and  feeble  its  manifestation. 
Moral  ruin,  for  obvious  reasons,  affects  the  religious  side  of  man 
more   destructively  than   any   other.     What  marvel  that   its 


96 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


restoration  be  more  slowlv  effected,  and  that  the  contrast  be- 
tween  the  bright  and  healthful  inspirations  of  all  untrammeled 
art  and  poetry,  and  the  gloomy  and  really  burlesque  human 
developments  of  religion,  should  embolden  scoffers  and  the  short- 
sighted, to  suspect  the  essentially  human  and  divine  character 
of  true  religion.  Here  art  and  poetry  are  the  faithful  allies  and 
renovators  of  religion." 

To  what  extent  Morris  was  aware  of  his  ^apse/  we 
have  no  means  of  estimating  now.  But,  on  the  face  of 
it,  he  was  reacting  decidedly  against  the  jejune  notions 
common  to  Paley  and  to  the  exponents  of  current  Pro- 
testant orthodoxy,  who  continued  in  the  outworn  ways, 
as  if  Hume  and  Kant  had  never  come  for  judgment 
and  for  reawakening.  The  purport  of  Hegel  and  the 
historical  school  begotten  by  him  was,  of  course,  entirely 
misunderstood  or,  more  often,  overlooked. 

In  any  case,  we  have  ample  evidence  that  his  contemp- 
oraries in  the  Seminary  recognized  in  Morris  a  man 
beyond  their  attainments,  and  discerned  something  of 
his  unrest.     Thus,  Dr.  Curtis  writes: 

''I  did  not  know  jVIorris  intimately.  He  was  considerably 
older  than  myself — very  mature  and  thoughtful.  By  his  attain- 
ments, he  seemed  fitted  for  post-graduate  work.  I  have  always 
felt  that  he  was  in  a  state  of  perplexity  over  not  a  few  doctrines 
of  the  church.  But  he  was  not  given  to  airing  his  doubts.  He 
impressed  me  by  his  reverence.  He  was  never  flippant.  I 
admired  him,  and  wondered  how  the  struggle  over  his  religious 
beliefs  would  come  out.  ...  He  impressed  me  as  a  man  of 
beautiful  spirit,  who  was  'feeling  his  way'  to  a  system  of  philo- 
sophy that  would  satisfy  his  reason.  I  did  not  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  processes  of  his  thinking,  while  I  recognized 
the  fact  he  was  an  unusual  thinker,  for  a  man  of  his  years.  He 
admired  Prof.  Henry  B.  Smith,  who  was  a  philosopher  as  well 
as  a  theologian,  and  a  man  of  broad  and  generous  spirit.  I 
somehow  felt  that  Prof.  Smith  was  the  only  man  in  the  Faculty 
of  Union  Seminarj^  who  particularly  interested  him  .  .  .  who, 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


97 


by  his  abihty,  firmness,  and  keen  analytical  thinking,  left  some 
mark  on  Morris's  mind." 

Dr.  Hutton's  testimony  is  to  similar  effect: 

"Morris  was  noted  for  his  quietness,  seriousness,  and  always 
appeared  to  be  in  a  thoughtful  mood,  as  if  pondering  some  deep 
problem  in  theology  or  philosophy.  The  student  body  repre- 
sented many  denominations:  and  the  discussions  revealed  quite 
a  diversity  of  views  on  the  great  and  fundamental  doctrines  of 
Christianity.  Mr.  Morris  appeared  to  be  somewhat  unsettled 
in  his  views  regarding  some  of  the  doctrines  taught.  He  was 
somewhat  wavering  regarding  certain  interpretations  or  explana- 
tions of  Bible  truth.  Prof.  Smith  was  both  a  philosopher  and  a 
theologian.  He  was  Professor  of  Mental  and  Moral  Philosophy 
at  Amherst  College  prior  to  his  election  to  the  Professorsliip  of 
Systematic  Theology  in  Union  Seminary.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  learning,  quite  familiar  with  all  the  philosophical  and 
theological  views  advocated  by  the  different  schools.  He 
allowed  the  students  to  question  him  freely  on  all  subjects,  and 
in  these  questions  the  bent  of  the  students'  minds  was  revealed. 
Mr.  Morris  was  in  great  measure  the  young  philosopher.  His 
questions  showed  that  he  was  a  deep  thinker  and  an  earnest 
searcher  after  truth.  He  was  seemingly  anxious  to  reach  a  clear 
and  satisfactory  view  of  the  great  problems  of  sin  and  redemption. 
And,  during  these  discussions.  Prof.  Smith,  in  a  most  masterly 
manner,  corrected  the  misconceptions  of  the  students." 

Again,  writing  to  Miss  Morris,  Dr.  Hutton  says: 

"Your  father  was  in  manner  serious,  thoughtful,  and  unusually 
reticent.  He  was  present  regularly  at  recitations,  was  a  good 
scholar,  and  impressed  me  as  a  young  man  of  superior  ability. 
In  the  class  discussions,  and  in  the  questions  he  propounded  to 
Prof.  Smith,  he  displayed  great  mental  acuteness,  and  great 
fondness  for  philosophical  debate.  I  regarded  him  as  indeed  the 
philosopher  of  the  class.  But  he  did  not  seem  to  have  any  strong 
convictions  regarding  certain  fundamental  theological  dogmas. 
His  mind  seemed  to  waver,  to  be  in  some  doubt,  to  be  unable 
to  heartily  assent  to  the  doctrines  advocated  by  Professor 
Smith  and  accepted  by  the  students  generally.  .  .  .  Dr.  Smith 
8 


w 


98 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


99 


was  a  master  both  of  philosophy  and  theology.  His  answers  to 
questions  that  seemed  unanswerable  were  most  helpful  to  those 
who  were  in  doubt.  .  .  .  What  change  he  effected  in  your 
father's  views,  of  course,  I  cannot  tell." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Moseley  H.  Williams,  of  Philadelphia, 
offers  an  interesting  side-light  on  possible  reasons  for 
the  dissatisfaction  felt  by  Morris.  As  a  member  of 
the  Class  of  1867,  he  says: 

*'We  were  in  Union  Seminary  together  in  1864-6.  I  recall 
him  as  rather  pale,  intellectual  in  appearance,  quiet  in  manner, 
and  keen  in  observation  and  expression.  I  was  not  thrown  into 
such  intimate  relations  with  him  as  to  have  recollections  of  much 
value.  ...  As  to  the  philosophical  atmosphere  of  Union  Semin- 
ary, we  had  Prof.  Henry  Boynton  Smith,  one  of  the  finest 
intellects  of  his  day,  a  New  Englander  by  birth  and  training,  a 
man  of  marv^ellous  learning  and  power  of  expression.  He 
certainly  had  the  philosophical  mind  and  training;  but  a  Theo- 
logical Seminary  really  does  not  go  into  theology  very  deeply  at  any 
time,  and  we  were  living  in  the  midst  of  the  excitements  of  the  Civil 
War,  when  the  stirring  events  of  the  times  gave  a  practical  turn  to 
our  talk."* 

We  know  from  Morris's  ow^n  experience  a  little  earlier, 
how  overmastering  this  preoccupation  was  in  certain 
religious  circles.  And  it  may  very  well  have  been  that 
the  conditions  prevalent  in  the  Revolutionary  era,  so 
clearly  drawn  by  Professor  Van  Tyne,  reproduced  them- 
selves somewhat  in  the  Seminary. 

"The  Americans  were  not  only  Protestants,  but  protestants 
from  Protestantism  itself,  and  from  this  fact,  as  Burke  expressed 
it,  a  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  had  grown  up.  This  spirit  the  dis- 
senting clergy  communicated  to  a  people  far  more  influenced  by 
what  they  heard  in  the  House  of  God  than  we  in  these  degenerate 
days  can  comprehend,  "t 

*  The  italics  are  mine. 

t  Cf.  "The  Clergj'  and  the  American  Revolution,"  The  American 
Historical  Review,  Vol.  XIX  (Oct.,  1913),  C.  H.  Van  Tyne. 


At  all  events,  for  other  reasons,  if  not  on  account  of 
this  insistent  practical  interest,  Morris  felt  that  he  was 
not  getting  at  the  fundamental  things.  The  noise  of 
the  armed  strife  distracted  all  from  deeper  questionings 
as  to  theological  subjects. 

During  his  first  year  of  attendance  at  the  Seminary, 
Morris  doubtless  drew  his  own  conclusions  about  the 
tendency  and  sufficiency  of  the  instruction.  I  infer 
that,  like  some  students  of  my  own  acquaintance  in 
similar  circumstances  a  generation  later,  he  felt  the  lack 
of  reality,  and  the  failure  to  consider  clamant  problems 
without  mental  reservations.  As  the  early  months  of 
the  second  year  (autumn  of  1865)  passed,  his  desire  to  go 
to  Europe  grew  more  urgent;  he  sought  ways  and  means. 
Then,  too,  his  teachers,  thanks  to  farther  intercourse, 
cannot  but  have  been  in  a  better  position  to  diagnose  his 
case,  and  to  advise  him  frankly.  It  is  clear  that.  Pro- 
fessor Smith  aside,*  the  move  came  entirely  from  himself. 

*  Henry  Boynton  Smith  was  born  at  Portland,  Me,,  in  November, 
1815;  graduated  from  Bowdoin  in  1834;  studied  theology  at  Bangor  and 
Andover.     Thereafter,  he  went  to  Halle  and  Berlin,  where  he  became 
intimate  with  Tholuck,  Ulrici,  Neander,  Dorner,  Godet  and  Khanis. 
Godet,  writing  to  Mrs.  Smith  just  after  her  widowhood,  refers  to  Neander 
as  Smith's  and  his  spiritual  father.     Like  Neander,  Smith  was,  on  the 
whole,  a  follower  of  Schleiermacher,  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that,  as  the 
names  of  his  German  friends  indicate,  his  sympathies  lay  essentially 
with  the  'School  of  Conciliation.'     He  was  most  at  home  in  historico- 
philosophical  treatment  of  theological  topics,  as  his  reviews  of  Draper, 
Mill,  and  Whedon  attest.       His  volume.  Faith  and  Philosophy  (1877), 
consisting  chiefly  of  reprints  of  articles  from  The  Presbyterian  Review, 
and  the  earlier  work.  The  Idea  of  Christian  Theology  as  a  System  (1854), 
give  an  adequate  notion  of  his  position.     His  posthumous  Lectures  on 
Apologetics  (1882)   offer  many  hints  as  to  what  Morris  derived  and, 
equally,  could  not  obtain,  from  his  teacher.     For  him,  as  for  so  many, 
the  School  of  Conciliation  ran  with  the  hare  and  hunted  with  the  hounds. 
After  holding  the  Amherst  chair  of  Philosophy  for  three  years.  Smith 
came  to  Union  Seminary,  to  undertake  the  professorship  of  Church 


100 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


As  was  natural,  the  family  had  many  misgivings.  Mrs. 
Cone  writes: 

*'I  remember  his  coming  with  his  sister  Lucy  to  tell  me  that 
it  was  decided  he  was  to  go  to  Europe.  We  sat  round  the 
dining-room  and  talked  it  over,  as  if  it  were  a  great  and  important 
event,  as  indeed  it  was  to  him  and  to  us  all." 

This  interview  took  place  in  late  January  or  early 
Februarv,  1866.  The  familv  feared  "lest  German 
philosophy  should  destroy  his  religious  faith."  Four 
letters — from  his  sisters,  Lucy  and  Susan,  and  from 
his  parents — prove  that  the  project  had  become  acute 
during  the  Christmas  vacation  of  1865-6,  and  that  he 
must  have  remained  in  New  York  pending  necessary 
arrangements.  The  letters  are  dated  by  day  names 
only,  except  that  from  his  father,  of  date  20th  January, 
1866.  This  date,  with  internal  evidence  in  the  other 
letters,  enables  me  to  date  all  four  approximately.  The 
communication  from  Lucy  was  the  earliest;  it  was  written 
either  on  the  21st  or  28th  December,  1865.  At  this 
time,  Morris  himself  had  quite  decided  upon  European 
study;  but  the  troublesome  financial  question  barred 

History.  The  change  from  New  England  Congregationalism  to  New 
School  Presbyterianism  was  a  difficult  one.  But  he  had  counted  the 
cost,  and  knew  what  he  was  doing.  A  letter,  written  in  September, 
1850,  serves  to  throw  light  upon  the  peculiar  situation  of  Union  Semin- 
ary, alike  as  to  opportunity  and  limitation.  "I  go  to  New  York  in  full 
view  of  all  the  uncertainties  and  difficulties  of  the  position.  The  literary 
character  of  the  Seminary  is  slight,  its  zeal  in  theological  science  is  little, 
the  need  of  a  comprehensive  range  of  theological  studies  and  of  books 
thereto  has  got  to  be  created.  Its  theological  position  is  not  defined." 
Within  a  few  months  of  his  removal,  he  became  influential;  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  chair  of  Systematic  Theologj'  in  1854;  and,  thereafter, 
grew  to  be  one  of  the  most  conspicuous,  trusted  and  powerful  leaders  of 
his  adopted  communion.  After  1868,  the  continuity  of  his  work  was 
sadly  interrupted  by  sickness.  He  died  in  1877.  Cf.  Henry  Boynton 
Smith,  his  Life  and  Work,  by  Mrs.  Smith  (1881). 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


101 


the  path.  The  situation  was  such  that  opportunity 
offered  to  express  the  grave  dubiety  of  the  family  circle. 
One  paternal  letter  runs: 

''Let  me  caution  you  against  too  great  trust  in  Mr.  Larrowe.* 
Use  your  own  judgement,  and  do  not  be  dazzled  by  the  brilliant 
prospect  of  going  to  Europe.  You  will  not  misunderstand  me 
when  I  say,  that  it  will  not  be  wise  for  your  own  peace  of  mind 
and  happiness  if  you  go  to  Germany,  and  plunge  into  German 
abstractions,  without  a  firm  planting  of  your  belief  upon  exper- 
imental Christianity.  I  don't  want  you  to  become  befogged  in 
metaphysics,  and  lose  aught  of  simple  trust  in  or  obedience  to 
the  doctrines  of  Christ  crucified.  That  is  my  only  fear  for  you. 
One  must  be  stayed  upon  the  Rock  of  Ages  before  putting  out  in 
the  contentions  of  metaphysics.  I  think  faith  and  works  are 
both  necessary.  Don't  give  yourself  up  to  the  opinions  of 
Larrowe  without  knowing  that  you  do  it,  and  the  wherefore. 
I  caution  you  thus,  because  I  should  need  the  same  were  I  in 
your  place." 

Meanwhile,  events  moved  so  rapidly  that,  on  the  18th 
January,  1866,  the  family  received  a  letter,  announcing 
that  the  trip  w^as  assured.  The  first  reply  to  this  is 
from  Morris's  sister,  Susan.  Characteristically  enough, 
her  letter  comments  upon  the  prospect  in  a  brief  and 
matter-of-fact  manner,  and  then  proceeds  to  give  a 
long  account  of  revival  meetings  then  in  progress  at 
Norwich ! 

"Your  letter  to  Father,  which  came  yesterday,  has  been  read 
and  'contents  noted,'  and  meditated  and  reflected  on.  .  .  . 
For  my  part,  I  suppose  I  ought  to  congratulate  you  upon  the 
near  prospect  of  having  your  ambitious  desires  gratified.  I  am 
very  glad  for  your  sake;  but  for  my  own  part  I  don't  know  as  I 
like  the  idea  of  j^our  going  off  so  far  without  seeing  j^ou  for  three 
years,  neither  do  I  think  the  receiving  'letters  from  Germany' 

*  As  appears  from  the  letter  of  Mr.  Sylvester  Morris  below,  Mr. 
Larrowe  was  very  soon  to  loan  or  give — which  I  do  not  know — Morris 
$3000,  to  finance  the  trip. 


102 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK  OF 


will  compensate  for  your  long  absence.     But  then,  if  you  must 
and  will  go,  we  must  make  the  best  of  it." 

The  father's  reply  is  that  of  a  practical  man,  and  takes 
the  essential  point  admirably. 

"  I  was  pleased,  and  so  was  your  Mother,  to  think  the  man  you 
speak  of  took  so  much  interest  in  you  as  to  give  you  $3000,  to 
spend  in  Europe.*     But  it  is  not  so  pleasant  to  your  Mother  to 

*  Unfortunately,  I  have  been  baffled  in  every  attempt  to  determine 
why,  or  under  what  circumstances  or  conditions,  Mr.  Larrowe  furnished 
Morris  with  this  considerable  sum.  On  the  other  hand,  after  long  and, 
as  it  appeared  for  two  years,  hopeless  search,  I  have  been  able  to  identify 
the  benefactor.  He  was  Marcus  Dwight  Larrowe,  born  in  Cohocton, 
Steuben  County,  New  York,  5th  May,  1832.  He  entered  the  Class  of 
1854  at  Yale  in  the  Sophomore  year  and,  after  graduation,  was  a  student 
in  the  Yale  Law  School  till  February,  1856,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Connecticut  bar,  and  immediately  settled  in  New  York  City,  where  he 
practised  his  profession.  In  the  spring  of  1861,  he  removed  to  Nevada, 
which  he  had  visited  in  1859.  In  the  spring  of  1863,  he  was  appointed 
District  Attorney  of  the  Territory,  and  resided  at  Carson  City.  In 
August,  1863,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention 
and,  under  the  constitution  then  framed,  was  made  a  Judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  He  never  filled  this  position,  as  the  Court  failed  to 
receive  ratification  from  the  people.  Nevada  having  been  admitted  as 
a  State,  in  1864,  Mr.  Larrowe  was  elected  a  member  of  the  State  Senate 
for  four  years.  He  returned  to  New  York  in  1865  and,  in  1866,  decided 
to  remain  there.  He  had  evidently  been  engaged  in  "  business  schemes" 
(probably  mining)  in  Nevada,  as  well  as  in  politics  and  in  the  practise 
of  law;  and  he  had  been  successful.  So  far  as  the  records  establish,  he 
continued  to  practise  law  in  New  York  till  1868.  Thereafter — the  date 
is  uncertain — he  abandoned  his  business  activities  "to  take  up  a  scheme 
for  developing  the  memory.  He  gave  private  lessons  for  a  while  in 
New  York.  In  1874  he  went  to  London,  England,  and  changed  his 
name  at  the  same  time,  so  that,  if  failure  did  result,  no  embarrassment 
might  attach  to  the  family  name.  This  accounts  for  his  assuming  the 
name  of  Alphonso  Loisette,  by  which  he  is  so  widely  known."  He  gave 
lessons  in  London  and,  after  1880,  was  accustomed  to  lecture  on  the 
subject  of  Memory.  He  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1886,  leaving 
a  manager  at  his  London  office.  "After  his  return,  he  passed  a  few 
months  in  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  and  then  located  in  New  York 
City,  where  he  had  classrooms  at  237  Fifth  Avenue  till  April,  1893. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


103 


think  that  her  George  is  to  be  gone  so  far  from  home  and  that 
she  will  not  see  him  for  three  years  or  more;  and  she  wants  to 

In  November,  1894,  he  sailed  for  Europe  with  the  intention  of  making 
a  lecture  tour  round  the  world,  which  he  carried  out.     He  arrived  at 
San  Francisco  on  January  21st,  1896,  and  died  at  the  Palace  Hotel  there 
on  5th  February  of  the  same  year."     Soon  after  his  return  to  the  United 
States,  "Loisette"  appeared  in  Ann  Arbor.     The  Michigan  Argonaut 
of  19th  Nov.,  1887,  says:  "An  attempt  is  being  made  to  work  up  an 
enthusiasm  among  the  students  in  the  interest  of  Professor  Loisette's 
memory  system.  .  .  .  The  success  which  the  system  is  meeting  at  Yale 
.  .  .  and   the  testimonials    received    from    prominent    men,   certainly 
indicate  that  there  must  be  some  real  merit  in  his  method."     By  10th 
December  it  was  able  to  announce  that  an  advance  agent  was  to  "arrange 
all  necessary  preliminaries."     Finally,  "Loisette"  gave  an  introductory 
lecture,  attended  by  "a  large  crowd  of  from  500  to  600,"  and  gathered 
a  class  of  "nearly  400  members,"  who  each  paid  a  $5  fee.     The  aftermath 
was  not  pleasant.     The  issue  of  11th  January,   1888,  says:  "Loisette 
has  come  and  gone.     The  criticism  which  one  hears  is  usually  of  an 
unfavorable  sort.  ...  He  left  numerous  printed  slips,  and    in   place 
of  these  and  several  lectures,  has  taken  away  with  him  two  thousand 
dollars  or  thereabouts.     Many  students  have  a  very  distinct  recollection 
that  they  paid  five  dollars,  and  that  is  the  most  they  know  of  Loisette 
or  his  discovery."     While  the  issue  of  11th  February  classes  Loisette 
with  some  faith-healing  quacks  then  operating  in  Ann  Arbor,  and  con- 
cludes: "If  a  fakir  should  come  along  selling  gold  watches  at  $2,  Ann 
Arbor  would  probably  buy  him  out."     Such  an  episode,  together  with 
this  "Christian  Science"  and  the  $2000  we  "blew  in"  on  Loisette,  would 
make  a  trio  of  fooleries  which  would  be  hard  to  beat  "  (Cf.  The  Palladium 
for  1888,  the  year-book  of  the  Michigan  graduating  class,  p.  174.)     I 
am  indebted  to  Mr.  Alfred  K.  Merritt,  Registrar  of  Yale  University, 
for   the  facts   concerning   Larrowe's   earlier   career.     Further   light   is 
thrown  upon  the  somewhat  doubtful  episodes  of  his  "Loisette"  period 
in  Memory  Systems,  New  and  Old,  by  A.  E.  Middleton  and  G.  S.  Fellows, 
pp.  96  f.  (New  York,  1888).     Mrs.  Morris  writes  that  "later  in  life 
Mr.  L.  defrauded  Mr.  Morris  of  considerable  money."     The  references 
dropped  by  Morris  p^re — "  let  me  caution  you  against  too  great  trust  in 
Larrowe;  dont  give  yourself  up  to  the  opinions  of  Larrowe  without 
knowing  that  you  do  it,  and  the  wherefore" — led  me  to  conjecture  that 
his  ideas,    whatever   they   were,    might   have   exerted    some   influence 
upon  Morris's  mental  development.     But  the  fact  that  they   cannot 
have  met  till  the  autumn  of  1865  proves  that  their  intellectual  inter- 
course, if  any,  was  no  more  than  a  brief  incident. 


104 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


105 


know  what  the  advantage  of  Germany  is  for  studying  over  New 
York  or  the  best  places  in  this  country,  or  what  you  will  learn 
there  that  you  could  not  have  here,  or  what  it  is  you  want  to 
study.  I  do  not  know  enough  to  tell  her,  of  course,  and  advise 
you  to  answer.  For  my  part,  I  have  ever  thought  you  were 
better  fitted  for  a  Professor  in  some  college  than  for  a  Minister; 
or  rather,  I  have  had  fears  that  your  lungs  or  throat  would 
trouble  you  if  you  were  to  preach  constantly;  but  in  teaching 
you  have  thus  far  been  successful,  and  that  is  what  I  think  you 
were  made  for.'* 

His  mother  wTote  a  touching  note,  the  more  pathetic 
to  us  who  know  that  she  passed  away  ere  his  return. 

**Upon  the  subject  of  your  going  to  Germany,  I  can  only  say 
from  my  own.  standpoint,  if  it  is  the  way  you  can  'best  serve 
your  day  and  generation,'  to  give  so  much  more  time  to  study 
before  entering  upon  the  ministry,  which  I  suppose  you  still 
have  in  view,  I  of  course  must  be  content  to  let  you  go.  When 
I  read  your  letter,  the  tears  came  plentifully  at  the  thought  of 
such  a  long  separation.  The  thought  soon  comforted  me  that 
it  w^ould  not  be  eternal,  if  earthly.  What  glorious  prospects 
before  us  poor  pilgrims  of  earth,  if  faithful  unto  death.  God 
grant  that  we  may  be.  .  .  .  Susie  is  very  much  affected;  she 
stayed  to  be  conversed  with  last  evening.  Good  morning;  and 
may  God  Almighty  be  with  you  always  to  guide  and  to  keep." 

The  reference  to  "Susie''  is  of  particular  interest. 
Despite  other  preoccupations,  Morris  had  found  time 
for  affairs  of  the  heart.  There  was  a  mutual  attraction 
between  him  and  Miss  Susan  Denison,  of  Royalton, 
who  had  been  one  of  his  pupils  there.  As  a  result  of 
correspondence,  they  became  engaged  in  the  spring  of 
1867.  She  was  the  youngest  child  of  Dr.  Joseph  A. 
Denison  and  his  wife,  Eliza  Skinner.  More  than  seven 
years  his  junior,  she  was  less  than  twenty  at  the  time 
of  the  betrothal.  Dr.  Denison  came  of  an  old  family, 
the  most  prominent  in  Royalton,  where  the  '  old  Denison 


house'  still  stands,  the  largest  and  handsomest  in  the 
village.  Mrs.  Cone  records  that  the  couple  were 
" admirably  suited  to  each  other,"  and  that  "an  alliance 
there  w^ould  have  meant  everything  desirable  according 
to  New  England  standards." 

Before  we  pass  to  the  European  sojourn,  let  us  take 
stock   for   a   moment.     We   have   a  young   man — just 
turned  twenty-five,   it  is  true,   but  with  a  wealth  of 
experience   behind   him.     Representative   of   a   culture 
which  dated  from  the  Reformation,  and  had  become 
keenly  conscious  of  itself  in  the  Puritan  Revolution,  he 
had  inherited  a  group  of  complex  ideas  that  sufficed 
him  alike  in  the  intellectual  and  the  practical  arenas. 
Notwithstanding    his    unconsciousness    of    them,    the 
notions  fathered  by  Sydney,  Milton,  Locke  and  Hoadly, 
set    his    perspective    in    secular    affairs.     The    fervent 
Abolitionism  that  swept  him  into  the  Northern  army 
was  no  more  than  their  logical  consequence.     On  the 
other  hand,  in  the  things  of  the  spirit,  he  w'as  born  a 
veritable  embodiment  of  his  folk — of  whom  Governor 
Pownall  (1769)  could  affirm  in  Parhament,  "The  spirit 
of  their  religion  \vill,  like  Moses'  serpent,  devour  every 
other  passion  and  affection."     He  had  been  reared  amid 
a  society  into  which  the  bare  possibility  of  scepticism 
about  the  dogmas  of  Protestant  Christianity  had  scarcely 
entered.     As  a  result,  his  studies  at  school  and  college, 
pursued  with  exemplary  diligence  and  eminent  success, 
however  they  may  have  disciplined  his  powers,  did  noth- 
ing to  transform  his  intellectual  life,  and  left  his  moral 
judgments  untouched.      He  proved  so  impervious  that 
his  acquirements  remained  external  to  his  vital  outlook. 
He  enjoyed  the  usufruct  of  a  pervasive  system  of  truth, 
which   had  come  to   him    without   any   effort   on   his 


106 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


107 


part;  its  foundations  and  defensibility  he  had  never 
examined.  The  army  episode  may  have  opened  his 
eyes  to  see  men  as  trees  walking.  But,  so  far  as  we 
know  now,  this  awakening  bore  upon  human  nature 
and  its  weaknesses  in  daily  conduct,  never  upon  the 
fundamentals  of  belief,  which  continued  a  free  gift,  so 
to  speak,  and  therefore  lacked  both  the  reality  and  the 
impregnability  of  possessions  hard  won  by  personal 
effort. 

When  he  passed  to  the  Seminary,  he  had  laid  his 
sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  the  chief  contemporary 
question  and,  to  some  extent,  his  interests  had  shifted. 
He  was  beginning  to  seek  his  own  foundations  for  the 
faith  that  he  had  merely  accepted  hitherto.  Briefly, 
his  intellect  was  really  stirred  for  the  first  time.  Un- 
questionably, this  change  overtook  him  slowly  and,  in 
the  end,  caught  him  unawares.  A  long,  varied  course 
of  reading,  coupled  with  the  new  ideas  *in  the  air'  of  the 
time,  had  their  effect  at  length.  At  that  period,  and 
in  these  circumstances,  even  Union  Seminary  w^as  ill 
calculated  to  ease  his  troubles.  For,  after  all,  a  semin- 
ary, as  a  rule,  lays  more  stress  upon  preparation  for 
the  working  pastorate  than  upon  discovery,  or  even 
statement,  of  first  principles.  The  confessional  basis 
necessarily  obtrudes  itself,  and  arbitrary  positions 
cannot  be  avoided.  The  appeal  to  reason  as  the  final 
arbiter  of  truth  belongs  to  the  exceptional  man,  who 
appears  very  rarely — who  could  not  appear  then,  at  all 
events  in  a  theological  school.  When  he  turned  his 
face  towards  Germany,  Morris  had  sensed  these  tram- 
mels. Yet,  although  he  may  have  determined  to  probe 
things  more  systematically,  he  could  not  have  foreseen 
the  enormous  changes  of  standpoint,  method  and  general 


atmosphere,  that  awaited  him  over  the  water.  The 
Germany  of  1866  was  nigh  two  generations  ahead  of  the 
English-speaking  world  in  treatment  of  philosophical 
and  theological  problems,  and  even  farther  removed 
from  the  United  States  than  from  England.  Hegel, 
who,  in  this  very  year,  was  just  beginning  to  be  noised 
abroad  in  Scotland,  thanks  to  Hutchison  Stirling,*  had 
run  his  course  in  his  native  land.  The  Hegelian  school 
had  fallen  to  pieces  long  since;  the  fever  of  materialism 
had  passed  its  crisis,  and  the  Neo-Kantian  movement 
had  set  in  with  F.  A.  Lange's  History  of  Materialism.] 
On  the  contrary,  the  Protestant  preachers,  who  filled 
American  chairs  of  philosophy,  were  still  winning  bubble 
reputations  in  the  *free  wilF  controversy,  serenely 
unaware  that  Vatke,  in  his  epoch-making  work.  Human 
Freedom  in  its  Relation  to  Sin  and  Divine  Grace,  had 
rendered  the  quarrel  meaningless  a  quarter  of  a  century 
before. t  It  is  true  that  Shedd,  fresh  from  the  influence 
of  James  Marsh  at  the  University  of  Vermont,  had 
brought  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  teaching  of 
Coleridge  to  Union  Seminary.§  But  Morris  found 
this  mystic  idealism  associated  with  orthodoxy  of  the 
old  Augustinian  and  Calvinistic  type  which,  as  we  are 
told,  grew  stronger  with  his  teacher's  advancing  years.  | 
So,  too,  in  the  realm  of  theology,  even  D.  F.  Strauss  was 
ancient  history  for  the  Germans,  and  the  best  of  the 

*  Cf .  The  Secret  of  Hegel;  being  the  Hegelian  System  in  Origin,  Prin- 
ciple, Form,  and  Matter,  1865. 

t  Lange  began  this  work  in  1862. 

t  Cf.  The  Value  and  Destiny  of  the  Individual,  B.  Bosanquet,  p.  113, 
note  1. 

§  Cf.  Shedd's  Introduction  to  his  edition  of  Coleridge's  Works  (1853). 

II  Cf .  Another  Decade  in  the  History  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
G.  L.  Prentiss,  p.  419. 


108 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


*liberar  Lives  of  Jesus,  that  of  Keim,  lay  little  more 
than  a  year  in  the  future.  Thoroughgoing  scientific 
handling  of  biblical  and  historical  problems  had  been 
naturalized  in  the  universities  for  forty  years,  and  many 
of  the  original  investigators  who  gave  Germany  her 
unchallenged  leadership  in  the  human  sciences  during 
the  middle  nineteenth  century,  were  in  their  prime. 
Little  witting  all  that  the  venture  implied,  Morris  was 
about  to  cast  himself  into  the  main  stream  of  modern 
European  thought,  then  and  there  at  'angry  flood.' 
Possessed  at  once  of  the  background  and  interests  to 
appreciate  the  vast  import  of  the  questions,  and  of  the 
equipment  to  work  upon  them  personally,  he  was  rarely 
fitted,  and  veritably  fated,  to  undergo  a  complete  dis- 
placement. 

On  Thursday,  8th  February,  1866,  Morris  took  leave 
of  his  relatives  at  the  Vermont  home  and,  on  the  10th, 
sailed  from  Hoboken,  aboard  the  North  German  Lloyd 
steamer  Neic  York.  As  his  Diary  tells  us,  he  "  pondered 
the  mysteries  of  suffering,  especially  sea-sickness," 
for  several  days,  and  did  not  blame  himself  "for  being 
so  human  as  to  forget  for  a  short  time  ambitions — 
Germany,  Metaphysic,  Logic."  Nevertheless,  it  appears 
that  metaphysic  exacted  its  due;  he  read  Shadworth  H. 
Hodgson's  Tiine  and  Space:  a  Metaphysical  Essay  (1865) 
on  the  voyage — a  stiff  dose.  "It  was  with  feelings 
extraordinary"  that  he  first  "looked  on  English  soil," 
off  the  Isle  of  Wight.  By  the  evening  of  the  24th  he  had 
reached  Bremen,  where  "the  streets  are  refreshingly 
clean  after  wandering  in  the  slush  and  filth  of  New 
York."  The  Sunday  morning  service  in  the  Dom  "was 
an  altogether  new  sight,  strangely  affecting  me; — so 
different  was  it  from  anything  I  had  seen  or  could  see 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


109 


in  America  in  style  and  arrangement,  and  so  various 
and  profound  were  the  emotions  excited  at  the  archi- 
tectural, pictorial  and  commemorative  expressions  of 
Christian  faith  and  reverence  which  it  contained.  .  .  . 
It  gave  me  for  the  moment  akindof  inspiration,  and  yet 
set  me  again  desperately  at  work  over  the  problems  of 
Christianity."  He  deemed  it  "indescribably  strange 
and  agreeable,  and  felt  glad  enough  at  the  thought  of 
the  great  privilege."  From  Bremen  he  went  to  Cassel, 
in  Hesse  Nassau,  where,  attracted  by  the  city  and 
surroundings,  he  remained  to  improve  himself  in  the 
language.  After  a  fortnight,  he  notes,  "I  am  getting 
into  working  trim;  make  my  seven  hours  a  day  now 
comfortably."  Nor  has  he  been  remiss  in  arranging  for 
study.  He  has  heard  from  Professor  Ulrici,  of  Halle,* — 
"  shall  go  thither  next  month."  The  solemn  observances 
of  Holy  Week  impress  him  profoundly. 

On  2d  April  he  arrived  in  Halle,  where  "Prof.  Ulrici 
gave  me  the  most  cordial  greeting  imaginable."  De- 
spite their  urgency,  German  and  philosophy  do  not  oust 
music  altogether.  He  goes  to  Leipzig,  to  hear  concerts 
at  the  Conservatory,  and  remarks:  "I  have  a  piano  in 
my  room  and  enjoy  practising  very  much.  I  have  the 
use  of  a  musical  library;  am  in  particular  raptures  just 
now  over  Nos.  4  and  31  in  Mendelssohn's  Elijah.  But, 
study  is  the  principal  thing:  "yesterday,  exactly  two 
months    after    my   landing   in   Europe,    I    commenced 

*  Hermann  Ulrici  (1806-84),  a  critic  of  Hegel;  best  known  for  his 
works  On  the  Principle  and  Method  of  the  Hegelian  Philosophy  (1841) ; 
The  Ground-principle  of  Philosophy  (1845-6);  System  of  Logic  (1852); 
God  and  Nature  (1861);  his  Shakespeare's  Dramatic  Art  (1839)  was  trans- 
lated into  English  (1888)  from  the  third  German  edition  (1868),  and  by 
it  he  is  remembered  in  the  English  world.  An  admirable  type  of  the 
German  philosophical  scholar  of  the  mid-nineteenth  century. 


i  '1 

1 


no 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


111 


hearing  lectures, — subjects,  Logic,  and  History  of 
Philosophy;  both  by  Prof.  Ulrici."  American  and 
German  ideals  clash  at  a  dinner  with  the  Ulrici  family. 
The  professor  "believes  not  in  the  permanence  of  our 
American  Republic.  His  ground  principles  were  very 
poor.  He  admitted  it  more  reasonable  to  elect  a  ruler 
than  to  obtain  him  by  inheritance;  but,  then,  we  were 
liable  to  make  a  bad  choice,  and  inevitably  must  do  so, 
when  we  should  come  to  have  10,000,000  voters!  Mat- 
ters of  religion  and  politics,  he  said,  were  all  in  the  region 
of  faith,  on  which  all  depended.  Then  I  had  him,  when 
I  told  him  we  believed  in  progress  in  America,  and  could 
not  therefore  go  back  to  monarchical  governments." 

In  late  June,  the  semester  ended,  we  find  Morris  in 
Dresden. 

"Wearied  with  hard  study,  a  bit  worn  through  foolish  anxiety, 
I  determined  to  give  myself  the  pleasure  and  recreation  of  a 
first  visit  to  this  noble  city.  ...  At  12  o'clock  the  Picture 
Gallery  was  opened,  and  I  rushed  for  the  Sistine  Madonna  of 
Raphael.  I  expected  to  be  wonderfully  impressed,  and  was  not 
in  this  case  disappointed.  It  was  so  far  surpassing  all  my  con- 
ceptions! I  shall  love  always  just  to  sit  and  think  of  it.  Not 
its  grandeur  at  all,  but  the  inexpressible  innocent  beauty  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  the  speaking  life  of  the  other  faces,  together 
with  the  beautiful  colours,  are  what  produce  the  effect  within  me.'' 

After  three  thrilling  weeks,  he  returned  to  Halle,  where 
he  was  present  at  the  inauguration  of  Beyschlag  as 
Rector  of  the  University,  and  heard  the  New  Testament 
theologian  deliver  "  a  tedious  address  on  Schleiermacher.'^ 
The  arrival  of  Prof.  Henry  B.  Smith  from  New  York, 
and  dinners  with  him  at  Ulrici's  and  Tholuck's,  gave 
keen  pleasure.  August  saw  him  in  Frankfurt,  after 
various  excursions,  to  the  Brocken  and  other  points  of 
interest. 


Late  in  the  same  month,  he  moved  to  Lausanne,  where, 
as  he  says  quaintly,  I  "first  saw  a  monk.''  Here  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  eminent  philosophical 
theologian,  Astie,  of  whom  he  was  to  see  a  good  deal.* 
The  fact  that  Astie  had  been  for  a  time  pastor  of  the 
French  Protestant  congregation  in  New^  York,  formed  a 
direct  bond  of  sympathy.     Morris  writes: 

"I  like  Lausanne.  It  is  a  great  improvement  on  Halle  in  the 
neatness  of  the  town  and  people.f  I  seem  more  as  if  I  were 
among  civilized  people." 

Geneva  did  not  please  him  especially,  although  he 
heard  Moliere's  Le  Tartuffe  and  Corneille's  Polyeucte— 
"the  latter  grand  and  noble  in  the  extreme."  He 
prolonged  his  stay  in  Switzerland  for  five  months,  till 
24th  January,  1867,  engaged  closely  in  study  of  French 
and  of  philosophy.  He  refers  to  an  article  on  Hodgson's 
Time  and  Space,  which  he  is  writing  for  H.  B.  Smith; 
and  he  records  that  he  read  Aristotle's  Metaphysics 
(in  Greek  and  French);  Ravaisson's  Essai  sur  la  Meta- 
physique  d'Aristote;  Cousin's  Histoire  Generale  de  la 
Philosophie;  Zeller's  Philosophie  der  Griechen:  Haureau's 
De  la  Philosophie  Scolastique;  Vacherot's  La  Metaphys- 
iqxie  et  la  Science;  Caro's  Videe  de  Dieu:  the  tragedies 
and  comedies  of  Racine,  Corneille  and  Moliere. 

Lausanne  had  grown  upon  him.     "I  did  not  realize 

*  Jean  Fr6d6ric  Asti6  (1822-94).  professor  of  philosophy  at  Lausanne, 
was  also  a  member  of  the  School  of  Conciliation,  having  been  influenced 
more  especially  by  Rothe.  He  wrote  a  number  of  works  which  have 
real  historical  interest  as  illuminating  the  controversy  between  the  mod- 
erate and  rationalist  wings  of  French  Protestantism.  His  opposition 
to  Scherer,  and  his  labors  as  founder  and  editor  of  the  Revue  de  TMologie 
et  de  Philosophie,  rendered  him  a  prominent  and  significant  figure  in 
his  day. 

t  For  the  ugliness  of  Halle  then,  cf.  Germany,  its  Universities,  etc., 
P.  Schaff,  p.  72. 


112 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


the  pain  my  departure  would  give  me.  All  my  friends 
there  manifested  extreme  kindness  and  interest  in  me. 
At  Mr.  Louis  Joel's,  architect,  now  Mayor  of  Lausanne, 
the  evening  before  I  left,  a  sort  of  wine  soup  was  made 
in  my  honour — a  dish  peculiar  to  occasions  of  separation 
among  them.''  His  journey  lay  through  Bern,  Basel 
and  Frankfurt,  to  Halle,  where  acquaintances  met  him; 
and  "it  relieved  my  dismal  homesickness  for  Lausanne 
somewhat  to  be  among  these  friends."  Dr.  Ulrici 
gave  him  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Trendelenburg, 
whom  he  visited  on  the  30th  January,  1867,  and  who 
helped  him  to  the  use  of  the  Royal  Library.  Berlin 
did  not  attract  him;  his  Lausanne  friends  urged  him  to 
return  and,  such  was  his  nostalgia,  that  he  almost 
decided  upon  precipitate  flight.     He  notes 

"On  the  other  hand  I  am  begining  to  learn  the  great  advant- 
ages of  being  in  Berhn.  ...  It  may  be  of  great  advantage  to 
me  to  hear  some  of  the  lectures  here  .  .  .  though,  in  general,  I 
can  employ  my  time  to  better  advantage  in  my  room  than  in 
the  lecture  room." 

The  musical  facilities  entice  him  and,  by  the  middle 
of  February,  he  is  less  unsettled,  letters  from  home  giving 
him  comfort. 

''Somebody  whom  I  have  long  admired  and  loved,  tells  me 
she  Hhinks  dearly  of  me,'  and  this  fills  my  cup  of  satisfaction 
rather  more  than  to  the  brim." 

Notwithstanding,  the  call  of  Lausanne  proved  irre- 
sistible ere  long  and,  on  27th  February,  we  find  him  in 
Munich,  "the  modern  Athens,"  after  a  visit  to  Nurem- 
berg, en  route  for  Switzerland.  Thence  he  went,  via 
Augsburg  and  Zurich,  reaching  Lausanne  on  2d  March, 
where  he  settled  down  contentedly.  Among  special 
pilgrimages  was  one  to  "the  tomb  of  Alexandre  Vinet," 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


113 


at  Montreux.  And,  so  for  nigh  another  five  months, 
life  sped  smoothly  and  profitably,  till  the  terrible  blow 
fell,  which  drew  the  stricken  words  of  26th  July.  "On 
July  1st,  I  received  the  dreadful  news  of  my  mother's 
sudden  death.  What  anguish  and  grief  it  has  cost 
me!  ...  No  mother  to  welcome  me  when  I  return  to 
America.     God's  will  be  done." 

The  bereavement  wore  upon  him,  for,  on  17th  August, 
he  wrote: 

"Half-sick  with  fatigue,  heat,  disappointment  and  expecta- 
tion, I  made  up  my  mind  for  a  trip  to  Chamounix." 

Some  mountaineering  served  to  refresh  his  spirits  and, 
by  the  end  of  the  month,  he  is  in  Paris,  where  Patti 
entranced  him  several  times. 

"To-day,  Thursday,  31st  October,  I  happened  to  pass  the 
Luxembourg  as  the  Emperor  of  Austria  left  it.  So  I  have  seen 
one  of  those  who  are  called  sovereigns." 

The  New  England  conscience  could  not  be  downed! 

At  the  beginning  of  November,  he  travelled  to  Cologne, 
on  the  way  to  Berlin,  where  he  resided  for  the  first 
semester  of  1867-8,  giving  himself  ardently  to  philosophy. 
He  attended  two  lectures  a  day,  hearing  Trendelenburg, 
Meyer,  and  Hause,  and  worked,  in  Trendelenburg's 
seminar,  on  Aristotle's  Ethics.  As  if  this  were  not  enough 
he  asked  Michelet  "to  recommend  me  a  person  who 
could  read  Hegel  with  me."  The  single  indication  of 
his  philosophical  standpoint  at  the  time  (given  by  the 
Diary)  occurs  now. 

"Last  Sunday  [18th  Nov.]  we  were  addressed  by  a  minister 
who  had  the  folly  to  say  that  Plato  was  indeed  a  great  thinker, 
but  that  no  one  would  think  of  reading  him,  now  that  we  had 
Locke!  Aristotle,  too,  dug  deep,  but  Hamilton  had  dug  deeper 
into  the  mysteries  of  philosopliical  problems!    This  reminds  me 

9 


114 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


115 


of  my  theological  class-mate  who  was  fond  of  calling  General 
Butler  a  'deep  thinker'!  What  are  we  Americans  coming  to, 
with  our  superficiality?  " 

During  his  Berlin  sojourn,  Morris  gave  constant 
attendance  upon  all  sorts  of  musical  performances. 

At  the  close  of  the  semester ^  in  March,  he  paid  a  second 
visit  to  Dresden  where,  as  he  records,  "I  met  Prof. 
Chapin,*  of  Ann  Arbor,  Mich.,  and  had  a  long  talk  wdth 
him.''  The  galleries  arouse  his  enthusiasm  once  more. 
Brief  stays  in  Prague,  Vienna,  Venice,  Bologna  and 
Florence  followed,  on  the  w^ay  to  Rome.  Prague  im- 
pressed him  deeply  and,  in  Vienna,  "everything  is  on  a 
grander  and  finer  scale  than  in  the  Hauptstadt  of  North 
Germany."  Ecclesiastical  Rome  being  still  in  its 
glory,  he  witnessed  the  ceremonials  of  Easter,  1868. 
On  Palm  Sunday,  he  attended  St.  Peter's;  "curious," 
he  comments,  "  but,  to  a  Yankee,  not  imposing."     Again, 

"we  went  to  see  the  feet  of  pilgrims  washed  .  .  .  the  dirtiest 
and  most  unintelligent  looking  men  and  boys  I  ever  saw.  .  .  . 
They  behaved  well  enough,  but,  oh!  my  God,  what  rays  of  intel- 
lectual or  spiritual  light  can  have  reached  their  minds  and 
hearts?  " 

He  w^as  more  impressed  by  the  scene  at  the  Papal 
blessing,  from  the  Loggia  of  St.  Peter's,  on  Easter  Day, 
and  the  evening  illumination  of  the  Basilica 

''was  one  of  the  grandest  sights  I  ever  saw.  .  .  .  By  isolating 
the  church  under  the  opera-glass,  so  as  to  see  only  it  against  the 
background  of  the  sky,  one  had  what  could  almost  be  taken  for 
a  golden  palace  of  the  New  Jerusalem — or  a  work  of  fairies." 

A  visit  to  Naples  fqllo^ved,  with  the  usual  experiences 
at  Vesuvius,  Pompeii  and  Capri;  thence  bj^  boat,  to 

*  L.  D.  Chapin,  professor  of  philosophy  after  Tappan's  dismissal 
(cf.  American  State  Universities,  Andrew  Ten  Brook,  pp.  256  f.). 


Leghorn,  and  on  to  Pisa,  Florence  and  Milan,  reaching 
Lausanne  again  on  May  4th,  to  find  a  cordial  greeting 
from  friends.  Although  he  lingered  here  till  20th  August, 
the  Diary  practically  closes  with  his  arrival.  He  went 
north  by  Paris  and  Havre,  w^as  "very  seasick,"  crossing 
the  channel  to  Southampton,  on  27th  August.  On  the 
28th, — having  seen  nothing  of  the  land  of  his  forebears, — 
he  sailed  for  New  York  by  the  steamer  Allemania.  A 
dirty,  disagreeable  voyage  may  have  elicited  those 
sentiments:  "The  passengers  are  for  the  most  part 
German-Americans.  A  disgusting  lot."  For,  on  the 
outward  voyage,  "the  passengers  w^ere  mostly  Germans, 
very  fine  people."  The  second  week  of  September 
found  him  in  America,  after  an  absence  of  two  years 
and  seven  months. 

The  Diary  throws  little,  if  any,  light  upon  the  course 
of  his  intellectual  development  in  Europe.  Moreover 
of  the  few  extant  letters,  addressed  to  relatives,  the 
majority  (twenty-six  or  thirty)  belong  to  the  earlier 
period  of  the  Wanderjahre,  and  duplicate  the  contents 
of  the  Diary.  They  are  records  of  events  and  observ- 
ations; the  drama  of  the  soul,  whatever  it  may  have 
been,  never  obtrudes  itself.  Nor  is  this  wonderful; 
Europe  was  a  panorama,  and  Morris  was  ever  reticent 
in  the  extreme.  We  gather  that,  despite  fits  of  Heimweh, 
he  was  "very  happy";  that  he  "never  studied  better"; 
that  he  "received  many  nice  letters  from  Royalton" 
(from  Miss  Denison);  that  "the  mental  activity  of  the 
German  nation  astonished"  and  captivated  him.  We 
may  infer,  from  numerous  pious  expressions,  that  he 
preserved  his  evangelical  traditions  substantially  for 
two  years  at  least.  In  this  connection,  however,  one 
significant  incident  occurs.     A  student  friend,  little  his 


116 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


senior,  had  preached  at  Lausanne,  and  it  was  suggested 
that  Morris's  "turn  came  next."  He  remarks,  "I  never 
wrote  a  sermon,  and  have  no  time  for  it  now."  It  is 
quite  evident  that  he  had  as  much  inchnation  as  time  I 
The  vocation  of  the  ministrv  had  been  abandoned 
finally  (Dec,  1866).  The  fit  of  the  'blues'  that  afflicted 
him  at  Berlin,  in  February,  1867,  and  drove  him  back 
to  the  congenial  environment  of  Lausanne,  was  undoubt- 
edly caused  by  the  anxiety  with  which  he  awaited 
Miss  Denison's  reply  to  his  proposal  of  marriage,  and 
aggravated  by  apparent  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  mys- 
terious Mr.  Larrowe.  Then  followed  a  brief  period  of 
supreme  happiness,  lasting  from  March,  till  the  death 
of  his  mother  dealt  him  a  tremendous  blow,  in  June. 
As  he  tells  his  sister,  all  summer  he  has  been 

''fighting  a  constant  and  lonely  battle  against  depression  and 
discouragement.  I  think  I  am  winning  the  battle.  Latterly, 
I  have  done  very  little  studying  .  .  .  felt  a  constant  indispos- 
ition to  work.  Mr.  Larrowe's  .  .  .  conduct  is  very  enigmatic, 
to  say  the  least"  (Aug.  22d,  1867). 

His  work  in  Berlin,  during  the  winter  of  1867-8, 
served  to  hearten  him  and,  at  its  close,  in  March,  1868, 
he  is  able  to  wTite  that  he  is  "very  well  and  happy.** 
But,  as  summer  comes,  he  is  torn  by  anxiety  regarding 
his  future  prospects  and  career. 

"I  sometimes  feel  my  courage  failing  me,  I  am  so  anxious  to 
be  earning  something  and  to  be  settled  in  a  fixed  occupation" 
(Aug.,  1868). 

It  is  fair  to  infer  that  the  European  period  w^as  one  of 
acquisition  and  that,  even  after  the  Berlin  term,  he  had 
not  thought  through  to  a  consistent  standpoint.  Later,* 
we  shall  have  reason  to  see  that,  of  the  teachers  with 

*  See  below,  pp.  217  f. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


117 


whom  he  worked,  Trendelenburg,  to  whom  he  refers 
as  "the  first  philosopher  now  living  in  Germany," 
exerted  greatest  influence  over  him.  Further,  it  \vas 
only  after  he  had  passed  beyond  Trendelenburg,  finding 
him  inadequate,  that  he  achieved  an  outlook  of  his  own. 
Finally,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  Morris's  article  upon 
his  Berlin  teacher  still  remains  our  most  adequate  dis- 
cussion of  this  strenuous  scholar.* 

*Cf.  The  New  Englander,  Vol.  XXXIII.,  pp.  287-336  (April, 
1874).  Friedrich  Adolf  Trendelenburg  (1802-72),  a  pupil  of  Reinhold, 
the  celebrated  Kantian,  at  Kiel;  of  G.  Herrmann,  "the  first  Greek  of 
his  time,"  at  Leipzig;  of  Hegel,  Schleiermacher,  Neander,  Ritter,  Bopp 
and  Steffens,  at  Berlin;  an  acute  thinker  and,  no  less,  a  thoroughly 
equipped  scholar;  professor  of  philosophy  in  the  University  of  Berlin 
from  1833;  member  of  the  Royal  Academy  from  1846,  and  secretary,  for 
the  section  of  history  of  philosophy,  from  1847  till  his  death.  "Hi.s 
principal  works  are,  in  addition  to  the  edition  of  Aristotle's  De  Anirna, 
his  Logical  Investigations  (1840;  2d  ed.,  1862;  3d  ed.,  1870),  his  Natural 
Right  (I860-  2d  ed.,  1868),  and  his  Historical  Contributions  to  Philosophy 
(Vol.  I.,  1846,  on  the  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Categories;  Vol.  II., 
1855,  Vol.  III.,  1867,  mostly  critical  articles  on  ancient  and  modern 
philosophers  and  philosophical  systems).  Numerous  addresses,  chiefly 
delivered  in  the  Academy  and  relating  to  questions  philosophical, 
historico-political  and  aesthetic,  are  published  in  his  Minor  Writings 
(2  vols.,  1870).  He  also  i>nh\is}ie<l  Elements  of  the  Aristotelian  Logic  .  .  . 
which  went  through  four  editions  at  least,  also  a  volume  ...  of  elucid. 
ations  of  the  same,  which  reached  the  second  edition,  and  both  especially 
designed  for  use  in  the  higher  schools.  .  .  .  Trendelenburg's  lectures 
extended  over  psychology,  logic,  history  of  philosophy,  ethics,  and  the 
philosophy  of  law.  His  lecture-room  was  usually  crowded.  His  genial 
manners  and  the  simple  fitness  and  felicity  of  his  style  and  delivery 
rendered  him  unusually  attractive.  ...  He  gained  great  influence 
among  the  higher  class  of  teachers  in  Prussia  and  throughout  Germany- 
His  devotion  to  labor  was  unflagging,  his  health  always  perfectly  good 
until  very  near  the  end  of  his  life,  his  family,  social,  religious,  and  political 
relations  agreeable,  and  his  death  very  widely  regretted.  .  .  .  The 
characteristic  of  all  Trendelenburg's  historical  investigations  is  the 
scientific  objectiveness  with  which  he  apprehends  and  sets  forth  the 
historic  facts  and  their  substantial  import.  ...  A  metaphysical  theory 
is  therefore  necessary,  but  not  one  manufactured  at  pleasure  out  of  the 


118 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


119 


The  two  years  intervening  between  the  return  home 
and  the  call  to  Michigan,  were  the  saddest  of  his  life. 
Three  factors  combined  to  cast  a  deep  shadow.  His 
mother's  death,  the  more  bitter  that  he  was  absent, 
continued  to  gnaw  at  his  heart.  Miss  Denison  broke 
her  engagement,  alleging  that  "he  had  grown  so  learned 
and  had  changed  so  much  in  his  religious  opinions,  that 
she  was  afraid  of  him.'*  Some  expressions  he  uses,  in  a 
very  intimate  letter  (22d  June,  1868)  to  his  sisters, 
Susan  and  Lucy,  w^arrant  the  inference  that  this  second 
blow  fell  in  the  early  summer  of  1868;  in  any  case,  we 
know  that  the  lady  gave  him  no  chance  to  right  matters 
by  a  personal  interview.  Lastly,  to  crown  all,  he 
could  not  find  permanent  work,  a  grave  difficulty, 
aggravated  by  the  concern  (partly  in  the  shape  of  in- 
ability to  understand)  of  his  nearest  relatives.  His 
father  and  brother  "  used  to  shake  their  heads  sometimes 
over  the  apparent  futility  of  an  extensive  preparation 
and  slow  results."     Mrs.  Cone  says: 

"I  remember  very  well  his  depression  on  his  return,  for  his 
mother  had  died,  and  his  lady-love  had  deserted  him.  .  .  . 

philosopher's  a  priori  consciousness.  On  the  contrary,  it  must  be  born 
of  the  widest  knowledge  of  the  actual  methods  of  the  sciences  and  of  the 
facts  of  existence  as  actually  established.  And  it  is  because  English  and 
American  philosophy  has  been  so  often  fragmentary  and  superficial  .  .  . 
that,  though  writing,  fundamentally  speaking,  rather  in  the  spirit  of  an 
historian  than  a  propagandist,  and  acknowledging  the  influence  in  the 
right  direction  which  is  exerted  by  illustrious  exceptions  among  our 
philosophical  writers,  we  have  been  influenced  by  the  thought  that  the 
further  infusion,  into  our  current  thought,  of  something  like  the  grave, 
comprehensive,  universal  doctrine  of  Trendelenburg  would,  if  it  could  be 
accomplished,  be  in  the  last  degree  beneficial."  Thus  is  Morris  moved 
to  characterize  the  teacher  who  left  the  deepest  mark  upon  him.  It  is  of 
present  interest  to  remark  that  the  contemporary  thinker  whom  Tren- 
deleburg  affected  most  is  Rudolf  Eucken,  the  distinguished  Jena  professor 
and  Nobel  Prizeman. 


Between  his  father  and  him  there  was  perhaps  not  so  complete 
an  understanding  as  Grandfather  had  of  his  second  son,  my 
father;  that  was  due  to  George's  education,  and  enlarged  relig- 
ious position,  and  to  the  habit,  acquired  in  Germany,  of  smoking 
— to  Grandfather,  smoking  was  nearly  as  bad  as  intemperance." 

Later  in  life,  the  grim  old  warrior  came  to  appreciate 
his  strange  duckling  far  more  fully. 

"The  Professorship  of  Modern  Languages  at  Michigan,  which 
came  to  him  in  1870,  though  it  was  not  exactly  what  he  sought, 
settled  him  and  relieved  the  family  anxiety." 

Mrs.  Cone  says  further: 

"I  remember  hearing  him  play  [the  organ]  in  church  at  Nor- 
wich soon  after  his  return  .  .  .  and  to  hear  him  play  was 
considered  a  treat  and  something  unusual." 

In  a  letter,  written  from  Lausanne,  Morris  discusses 
the  dubious  prospect  waiting  him  at  home,  and  tells  his 
sister,  that  the  best  thing  he  can  do  is  to  take  whatever 
may  offer.  He  pursued  this  course  precisely,  and  fortune 
smiled  upon  him.  He  was  lucky  enough  to  become 
resident  tutor  in  the  family  of  the  late  Mr.  Jesse  Selig- 
man,  the  prominent  New  York  banker.  Mr.  Albert  J. 
Seligman,  who  was  one  of  his  pupils,  has  been  kind  enough 
to  inform  me  that  Morris  "came  to  us  in  1868,  and  re- 
mained till  1870,  when  he  left  to  go  to  Ann  Arbor." 
Mr.  Henry  Seligman,  another  pupil,  and  his  brother, 

''agree  that  Mr.  Morris  was  a  gentleman  very  reserved  in  his 
nature  and  undemonstrative,  but  of  the  very  highest  character 
and  with  a  strong  underlying  wealth  of  affection  for  those  whom 
he  cherished.  I  remember  further  that  he  kept  in  touch  with 
us  for  some  years,  and  that  his  letters  were  always  of  an  affec- 
tionate tone." 

The  Seligman  home  at  this  time  was  in  a  large  house 
at  2  West  Forty-sixth  Street. 


120 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


121 


Nor  was  this  all.     About    the  time  of    his  return, 
Morris's  favorite  teacher  at   Union  Seminary,   H.   B. 
Smith,  in  collaboration  with  Philip  Schaff,  the  famous 
Swiss-American  church  historian,   projected  a   "Theo- 
logical  and   Philosophical   Library:   a   Series   of  Text- 
Books,  Original  and  Translated,  for  Colleges  and  Theo- 
logical Seminaries."     Casting  about  for  an  initial  work, 
which  would  attract  attention  to  the  Series  and  give  it 
immediate    reputation,    they    selected    the    History    of 
Philosophy,  from  Thales  to  the  Present  Time,  by  Friedrich 
Ueberweg,  successor  of  Kant  and  Herbart  at  Konigsberg. 
Ueberweg  was  in  close  sympathy  with  Trendelenburg, 
as  his  System  of  Logic  and  History  of  Logical  Doctrines 
(3d  ed.,  1868)  shows.*    This  fact,  Morris's  relation  to 
Smith  and,  no  less,  his  mastery  of  German  and  of  the 
history  of   philosophy,    brought   him   an   invitation   to 
undertake    the    translation,    which    he    accepted.     The 
first  volume  was  published. on  2d  December,  1871.     A 
letter  from  Dr.  Schaff,  dated  23d  February,  1871,  states 
that  the  final  proofs  had  been  received,  after  revision 
by  Ueberweg;  while  a  long  letter  from  Ueberweg  himself, 
just  a  month  earlier,   discusses  some  alterations  and 
additions.     Seeing  that  the  translation  entailed  work 
of  the  most  laborious  kind,  involving  an  incredible  mass 
of  detail,  and  allowing  for  the  necessary  delays  caused  by 
exchange  of  proof  overseas,  it  is  altogether  likely  that 
Morris  began  soon  after  his  return  to  New  York,  and 
not  later  than  the  early  months  of  1869.t     Burdensome 
in  the  extreme  as  the  labour  must  have  been,  it  stood  him 
in  good  stead.     He  ' kept  his  hand  in';  the  care  bestowed 

*  English  translation  (1871),  by  Thomas  M.  Lindsay, 
t  Some  remarks  in  Smith's  Life  and  Work  (p.  290)  indicate  that  Morris 
buckled  to  the  great  task  so  early  as  October,  1S68. 


upon  verification,  the  vigilant  additions  and  the  admir- 
able judgment  throughout,  at  once  increased  and  proved 
a  knowledge  already  unusually  wide;  with  publication, 
his  name  became  a  household  word  in  the  universities 
of  the  English  world.*  In  short,  this  labour  of  love  placed 
the  capstone  upon  his  preparation,  and  certified  his 
thorough  scholarship.  If  he  would  but  come,  in  order 
to  conform  to  the  rules  for  'habilitation,'  Konigsberg 
would  be  glad  to  confer  her  doctorate  upon  him.  So 
Ueberweg  wrote.  All  competent  judges  have  recognized 
the  translation  to  be  an  achievement,  several  have  held 
it  up  as  a  model.  Without  doubt,  it  was  the  brightest 
spot  in  the  two  dark  years. 

*  Morris's  additions  to  Ueberweg's   German  text  total  some  17,000 
words.     They  are  to  be  found,  with  the  exception  of  about  1000  words, 
in  vol.  II.     Professor  Dewey  wrote  (in  1889):  "The  translating  was"^ 
performed  in  such  a  way  that  excellent  judges,  German  as  well  as  English, 
have   pronounced   the   translation   superior   to   the   original.     All   the 
numerous  references  to  Greek  and  Latin  authorities  were  verified  and 
translated,  ambiguities  in  style  and  statement  were  corrected;  the  biblio- 
graphical references  were  increased  from  the  ready  and  ample  store  of 
the  translator;   numerous  accounts  of   the  more  noted   contemporary 
German  philosophers  were  added.     The  translation  is  a  monument  not 
only  to  the  breadth  ar^  accuracy  of  Professor  Morris's  scholarship, 
but  to  his  entire  fidehty  and  thoroughness  in  executing  whatever  was 
committed  to  him." 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


123 


CHAPTER  V 

Michigan:  The  First  Period.    The  Johns  Hopkins 

Episode 

(1870-81) 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University 
of  Michigan,  held  on  20th  September,  1870,  Acting 
President  Frieze  presented  a  recommendation  from  the 
Executive  Committee,  nominating  Morris  to  the  chair 
of  Modern  Languages  and  Literature.  On  the  motion 
of  Regent  Edmund  Carey  Walker,  of  Detroit,  a  dis- 
tinguished citizen,  a  benefactor  of  the  university,  and  a 
most  influential  member  of  the  Board,  the  recommenda- 
tion was  adopted  unanimously.  Morris  entered  upon 
his  new  duties  forthwith. 

The  administration  of  Henry  Simmons  Frieze  (1869- 
71),  Professor  of  Latin  (1854-89),  marked  a  period  of 
repose  and  reconstruction  in  the  history  of  the  university 
which,  during  its  brief  existence,  had  been  imperilled 
by  two  serious  controversies,  as  well  as  by  no  little 
unwisdom,  emanating  alike  from  without  and  from 
within.     During  early  days, 

"no  great  name  was  established  and  spread  abroad  by  the 
university;  no  policy  had  been  settled  ...  the  governing 
board  had  no  power  which  could  be  freely  exercised,  so  that  its 
decisions  would  stand  without  appeal."* 

Between  1846  and  1851,  the  fight  over  the  Greek 
Letter  Societies  had  rent  the  institution,  and  led  to 
disruption  of  the  faculty. 

*  American  State  Universities,  Andrew  Ten  Brook,  p.  214. 

122 


''Good  plans  had  been  adopted,  and  a  firm  foundation  had 
been  laid;  but  as  yet  the  edifice  had  not  begun  to  rise.  Indeed 
a  positive  decline  in  the  number  of  students  at  the  University 
had  taken  place.  The  first  Catalogue,  that  of  1843-4,  gives  us 
the  names  of  fifty-three  students.  This  number  was  gradually 
increased  until  1848,  when  the  number  had  reached  eighty-nine. 
Then  for  the  next  five  years  there  was  a  steady  and  serious 
decline.  In  1852  the  number  of  students  in  the  Department  of 
Literature,  Science  and  the  Arts,  was  only  fifty-seven,  a  smaller 
number  than  had  been  present  any  year  since  1845."* 

With  the  appointment  of  President  Tappan  (the 
first  occupant  of  this  office),  great  changes  occurred, 
particularly  in  the  temper  of  the  university. 

"The  transformation  wrought  was  real  and  almost  immediate. 
....  It  requires  but  the  merest  reference  to  the  names  of 
professors  appointed  during  his  administration  to  show  that  the 
University  brought  together  under  this  policy  a  galaxy  of  unusu- 
ally able  men.  Boise,  Palmer,  Winchell,  Brunnow,  Ford,  Frieze, 
White,  Campbell,  Walker,  Cooley,  Wood,  Watson,  and  Armor,— 
such  were  the  assistants  whom  President  Tappan  gathered 
around  him.  .  .  .  The  work  of  the  University  was  immensely 
extended  in  breadth  and  depth."! 

During  this  administration,  the  attendance  all  but 
trebled,  rising  from  two  hundred  and  twenty-two  to 
six  hundred  and  fifty-two.  The  faculty  was  increased 
from  fourteen  to  thirty.  The  arbitrary  removal  of 
Dr.  Tappan  by  the  Board  of  Regents,  in  June,  1863, 
rocked  the  institution  to  its  foundations,  and  it  was  not 
till  1864  that  his  successor.  Dr.  Erastus  0.  Haven,  knew 
"  whether  he  was  really  president  or  not." J     His  adminis- 

*  Historical  Sketch  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  Charles  Kendall 
Adams,  p.  15. 

t  Ibid.,  pp.  16,  19.  Cf.  Autobiography  of  Andrew  Dickson  White, 
Vol.  I.,  pp.  276  f. 

t  Cf.  Ten  Brook,  ibid.,  pp.  242  f.  I  take  it  that  the  account  of  the 
affair,  given  by  Ten  Brook,  is  the  best  available.     He  writes  plainly 


124 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


tration  accomplished  "the  healing  of  the  wounds,"*  a 
considerable  feat;  although  it  must  be  confessed  that 
the  alumni  of  the  Tappan  decade  remained  implacable 
for  many  years. 

Frieze  who,  in  1844,  was  a  teacher  of  his  immediate 
successor,  Dr.  Angell,  was  persuaded  to  accept  the 
Acting  Presidency  upon  the  resignation  of  Haven,  now 
head  of  Northwestern  University  (1869). 

"The  two  years  during  which  he  was  the  chief  executive  were 
marked  by  important  events  in  the  history  of  the  Institution. 
In  1870  women  were  admitted  to  all  departments  of  the  Uni- 
versity. This  step  was  taken  by  the  Regents  rather  in  deference 
to  pubUc  opinion  than  to  the  wishes  of  the  Faculties.  I  think 
that  Professor  Frieze,  like  most  of  his  colleagues,  assented  to 
the  action  of  the  Regents  rather  than  urged  it.  .  .  .  Another 
important  step  was  due  altogether  to  the  suggestion  of  the 
Acting  President.  That  was  the  establishment  of  the  so-called 
diploma  relation  with  the  preparatory  schools.  ...  It  was 
owing  to  the  prompt  action  of  Dr.  Frieze  .  .  .  that  the  hbrary 
of  Professor  Rau,  of  Heidelberg,  was  secured  for  us.  .  .  .  It 
was  during  his  term  of  office  that  the  legislature  voted  the  sum 
of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  for  the  erection  of  the  main 
building  between  the  two  wings  of  University  Hall,  and  so 
established  the  happy  precedent  which  every  subsequent  legis- 
lature has  followed  in  furnishing  hberal  means  for  the  erection 
of  needed  buildings  for  the  University.  The  power  of  Dr. 
Frieze's  active  and  fertile  mind  was  felt  in  every  department  of 
the  Institution.  .  .  .  No  man  since  the  days  of  that  great  leader, 

with  a  bias  against  Tappan,  yet  with  a  desire  to  do  justice.  He  resented 
the  tendency  to  attribute  everything  to  Tappan,  and  to  omit  reference 
to  all  that  had  been  accomplished  when  he  himself  held  office.  (He  had 
been  President  of  Faculty,  according  to  the  rotation  plan,  in  1846-7, 
and  again  in  1850-1).  He  did  not  sympathise  with  Tappan's  philo- 
sophical position,  and  failed  to  appreciate  his  eminence;  and  he  evidently 
disliked  the  President's  rather  overwhelming  personality  no  less  than 
his  social  ways. 

*  Cf.  Autobiography  of  Erastus  0.  Haven,  p.  149. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


125 


who  gave  to  the  University  in  so  large  degree  its  present  form 
and  spirit,  Dr.  Tappan,*  has  furnished  so  many  of  the  ideas 
which  have  shaped  and  enriched  its  life,  as  Dr.  Frieze,  "f 

He  was  an  admirable  musician,  and  a  soul  full  of 
childlike  faith,  "naturally  and  cheerfully  devout."t 
Morris  was  soon  drawn  to  him  by  their  mutual  delight 
in  music;  they  became  close  friends.  There  can  be 
little  doubt,  too,  that  the  example  of  the  older  man 
exerted  strong  influence  in  attracting  the  younger  to 
the  Church  of  his  English  ancestors. 

Nor  was  it  due  to  these  personal  relations  only,  that 
Morris  began  his  career  under  happy  auspices.  He 
took  charge  of  the  Department  of  Modern  Languages 
at  a  crisis,  and  enjoyed  a  rare  opportunity  to  lay  the 
foundations  for  a  new  departure.  Mr.  Edward  Payson 
Evans,  who  had  taught  German  since  1863,  resigned  in 
1870;  and  Professor  Adam  Knight  Spence,  who  had 
oversight  of  French  since  1859,  left,  also  in  1870,  for  the 
Presidency  of  Fiske  University,  Nashville,  Tennessee. 
On  Frieze's  recommendation,  the  separate  chairs  were 
discontinued,  and  a  single  department  constituted. 
Morris  was  placed  in  sole  command,  with  a  native 
German  and  a  native  Frenchman  as  assistant  professors. 
The  experiment  proved  successful.  Frieze  himself 
records  that  Morris  "  soon  made  these  studies  respectable 
rivals  of  the  old  course  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics. "§ 
Students 

*  Cf.  Frieze's  Memorial  Discourse  on  the  Life  and  Services  of  Henry 
Philip  Tappan.  This  should  be  read  alongside  Ten  Brook's  History; 
for,  as  Dr.  Angell  says,  it  "furnishes  the  best  portraiture  ever  made  of 
the  first  President  of  the  University." 

t  A  Memorial  Discourse  on  the  Life  and  Services  of  Henry  Simmons 
Frieze,  James  B.  Angell,  pp.  19,  20,  21,  28,  29. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  34.  Cf.  Autobiography  of  Andrew  Dickson  White,  Vol.  I., 
pp.  272  f. 

§  Michigan  Argonaut,  Vol.  V,  p.  70. 


126 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


''feel  themselves  highly  favored  in  having  parts  of  their  work  in 
French  under  Prof.  Morris.  He  fully  meets  our  ideal  of  the 
model  Professor,  his  dignified  and  respectful  bearing  being  quite 
a  contrast  to  what  we  found  in  some  of  our  earlier  instructors. 
The  plan  of  having  all  questions  and  answers  in  French  is  a  good 
one,  and  will  give  one  a  knowledge  of  the  language  which  could 
be  acquired  in  no  other  way."* 

A  similar  method  was  pursued  in  German,  and  the 
value  of  the  course  in  Faust  is  emphasized,  especially 
for  its  stimulating  literary  influence.  When  Morris 
resigned  the  Modern  Language  chair,  universal  regret 
was  expressed  for  the  loss  of  "that  admirable  teacher 
and  ripe  scholar."t  During  the  first  year  or  two,  as 
several  alumni  of  the  period  have  informed  me,  Morris's 
extreme  reticence,  and  retiring  disposition,  seemed  to 
place  a  bar  upon  familiar  intercourse  with  students. 
But,  although  no  one  would  have  dreamed  of  taking 
liberties  with  him  at  any  time,  this  air  of  reserve  wore 
off  gradually,  the  transparent  honesty  of  his  character 
serving  to  chasten  pupils,  even  when  it  did  not  fully 
win  upon  them. 

Then,  too,  Morris  joined  the  staff  at  an  auspicious 
time.  As  we  have  seen,  the  university  had  at  length 
attained  a  solid  basis  of  success,  and  was  surely,  if  slowly, 
enlisting  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  State.  No 
less  important,  it  was  served  by  some  noteworthy,  by 
several  distinguished  men,  thanks  to  the  standards  set 
by  Tappan.  Williams,  revered  as  the  'father'  of  the 
institution,— he  had  received  the  first  matriculant,— 
the  man  who,  above  all  others,  had  borne  the  burden 
and  heat  of  the  day,  was  still  professor  of  physics— the 
living   link   with   a   most   significant   past.     Ford,   the 

*  Chronicle,  Vol.  YII.,  p.  164. 
t  Ibid.,  Vol.  XI.,  p.  1. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


127 


masterly    lecturer    on    anatomy;    Cooley,    Campbell, 
Walker  and  Kent,  the  most  eminent  quartette  of  legal 
teachers  in  the  country;  Prescott,  the  pioneer  chemist; 
Moses  Coit  Tyler,  the  historian  of  American  literature; 
and  Charles  Kendall  Adams,  the  protagonist  of  seminar 
instruction,  afterwards  President  of  Cornell  and  Wis- 
consin successively,  were  all  at  work,  making  reputations 
for  themselves   and  the  university.     Confronted   with 
an  average  so  remarkable,  it  is  difficult  to  select.      But, 
thanks  to  Dr.  Angell,  Professor  Isaac  N.  Demmon  and 
others,  whose  memories  run  back  to  this  epoch,  I  think 
I  am  correct  when  I  say  that  the  greatest  influence  was 
wielded   by  Frieze;   Olney,   professor  of    mathematics; 
Watson,  professor  of  astronomy;  and  Winchell,  professor 
of  geology.     Cocker,  who  received  the  professorship  of 
Intellectual  and  Moral  Philosophy  in  1869,  was  destined 
to  replace  Winchell  in  this  foremost  group  after  1872, 
when  Winchell  accepted  the  Chancellorship  of  Syracuse 
University.     Within  the  institution,   especially  in  the 
faculty.  Frieze  and  Olney  exerted  most  leverage.     Wat- 
son,  a  man  of  genius,   although   a  persona  non  grata 
with  some  of  his  colleagues,  achieved  an  international 
reputation,  became  a  founder  of  the  American  science, 
and   carried   the   fame   of  the   university  everywhere; 
while  Winchell's  power  of  public  speech,  like  that  of 
Cocker  later,  gained  a  unique  position  for  them  in  the 
eye   of   the   immediate   public.     Sectarian   rivalries,    a 
bane  of  the  university  from  of  old,  had  been  laid  or 
surmounted  to  a  considerable  extent.     Anglicans  were 
gratified  by  the  leadership  of  Frieze,  Baptists  by  that 
of  Olney;   while  Methodists,   although   they  had   lost 
their  former  primacy,  could  rest  well  content  with  the 
prominence  of  Winchell  and  Cocker.     The  professional 


128 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


schools  counted  influential  adherents  of  the  Presbyterian 
and  Congregational  denominations.  Thus,  all  things 
considered,  Morris  arrived  upon  the  scene  at  a  psycholog- 
ical moment,  and— the  acceptance  of  the  Presidency  by 
Dr.  Angell  was  less  than  six  months  off. 

The  recollections  of  colleagues  and  pupils  agree  that, 
for  some  years,  Morris  took  little,  if  any,  part  in  the 
general  affairs  of  the  university.  This  conclusion 
is  supported  by  the  files  of  the  academic  and  city  press, 
which  I  have  consulted  carefully.  It  would  be  alto- 
gether natural  to  attribute  his  seclusion  to  constitutional 
reticence.  But,  thanks  to  Dr.  Angell,  in  w^hose  family 
circle  Morris  soon  became  a  familiar,  we  know  that 
there  was  another,  and  more  potent,  reason.  The  truth 
is  that  he  felt  ill  at  ease  intellectually  and  spiritually. 
He  had  drifted  very  far  from  his  youthful  moorings, 
and  had  found  no  anchorage  in  the  open  sea.  The 
mind  frayed  the  body  too,  and  he  was  a  martyr  to 
dyspepsia.  I  cannot  discover  that  he  unbosomed 
himself  to  anyone  except  Mrs.  Angell.  He  seems  to 
have  talked  to  her  with  an  intimacy  extremely  rare  on 
his  part.  Unfortunately,  I  never  had  occasion  to  ask 
her  to  give  her  impressions.  Notwithstanding,  one 
can  piece  together  a  portion  of  the  story  at  least. 

Whenever,  during  that  period,  men  were  beset  by 
doubt,  they  found  a  large  body  of  congenial  literature 
convenient  to  hand.  Curiously  enough,  the  evolutionist 
party,  driven  by  the  non  possuvius  of  the  theological 
opposition,  threw  itself  into  the  arms  of  a  philosophy 
which,  being  temperamentally  unhistorical,  was  at 
fundamental  odds  with  the  rising  hypothesis.  Hume 
and  Voltaire,  along  with  other  avatars  of  eighteenth 
century  Rationalism,  gained  a  new,  if  paradoxical,  lease 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


129 


of  life.     Their  later  issue,  Mill,  Spencer  and  Huxley, 
furnished  a  popular  and,  be  it  confessed,  jejune  philoso- 
phy, that  squared  itself  expeditiously  with  many  of  the 
crude  or  uncriticized  inferences  bred  of  the  scientific 
movement,  and  gained  easy  applause  by  advertising  a 
break  with  'mediaevalism'  unaware  that  this  was  tant- 
amount to  a  repudiation  of  the  historical  problems  of 
philosophy  as  treated  by  the  major  thinkers,  from  Plato 
down.     Agnosticism  saturated  the  air,  and  there  was 
much  loose  talk  concerning  'correctness  of  observation' 
and  'consistency  of  inference,'  coupled  with  abundant 
ignorance  about  the  possible   objects   of  philosophical 
'observation'  and  the  available  methods  of  philosophical 
inference.     The  triumphant  scientist  beat  the  theologian 
at  his  own  game— of  dogmatism.     Hence,  studies  quite 
subsidiary  or  merely  preliminary  to  a  valid  philosophy, 
came  to  be  mistaken  for  serious  philosophical  investig- 
ations.     As    a    consequence,    fundamental     problems, 
inseparable  from  metaphysical  Wissemchaft,  were  post- 
poned or,  what  was  far  more  dangerous,  conventionalized. 
It  is  apposite  to  note  that,  by  the  early  seventies,  this 
tendency  had  so  far  crystallized  in  the  United  States 
as  to  support  an  organ  of  its  own.     The  importance  of 
The  Popular  Science  Monthly  (1872)  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  did  find  a  public,  and  did  meet  a  call,  despite  the  point, 
well  taken  by  Spencer  himself. 

"I  have  often  had  qualms  as  to  the  policy  of  making  the 
Monthly  a  propagandist  organ  to  so  large  an  extent."* 

Small  wonder,  then,  that,  unable 

''out  of  Senseless  Nothing  to  provoke 
A  Conscious  Something," 

*  Life  and  Letters  of  Herbert  Spencer,  David  Duncan,  Vol.  I.,  p.  231 
(American  ed.)-     The  italics  are  mine. 
10 


130 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


131 


Morris,  set  amidst  this  movement, — thoroughly  sure 
of  itself,  he  as  thoroughly  uncertain, — should  have  swung 
far  in  the  direction  of  rationalistic  agnosticism,  and  have 
endured  the  pangs  of  one  forced  to  say  of  his  former 
sufficing  faith, 

"  Beside  whose  grave  I  pace  forevermore, 
Like  desolation  on  a  shipwrecked  shore." 

Moreover,  the  influence  of  Trendelenburg  led  him  in 
the  same  direction. 

"The  exclusively  critical  task  of  deciding  as  to  the  powers  and 
limits  of  the  human  intellect  and  the  nature  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge was  taken  up  as  a  definite  problem,  .  .  .  partly  as  a  con- 
tinuation and  confirmation  of  Kant's  views,  partly  also  in 
opposition  to  them.  The  solution  of  this  problem  was  very 
much  assisted  and  influenced  by  two  independent  lines  of 
research.  The  first  of  these  was  the  analysis  of  the  methods  of 
science,  of  which  John  Stuart  Mill  was  the  great  representative; 
the  second  was  the  revival  of  Aristotelian  studies,  in  which 
Trendelenburg  of  Berlin  was  the  principal  leader.  .  .  .  From 
that  time  the  religious  influence  loses  its  tempering  and  control- 
ling effect."* 

But  it  is  to  be  recalled  also,  that  Morris's  German 
studies  prevented  him  from  acceptance  of  facile  empiric- 
ism. He  knew  too  much.  At  this  period,  then,  he 
was  thumbing  Voltaire — and  consuming  his  own  smoke. 
The  preparatory  years  still  dragged  their  long,  slow 
course,  to  the  end  that  another  and  wiser  doctrine  might 
be  won,  destined  to  replace  simple  assent  and  to  trans- 
cend sophisticated  doubt  by  annealed  insight,  the  highest 
species  of  faith. 

No  letters  or  other  documents  from  Morris's  own 
pen  survive,  to  bear  witness  to  his  mental  struggle. 

*  A  History  of  European  Thought  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  John 
Theodore  Merz,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  125,  159. 


Dr.  Angell's  recollections  are  quite  definite,  however; 
and  the  state  of  affairs  was  suspected,  if  no  more,  in 
quarters  far  removed  from  Ann  Arbor.  Old  friends  in 
the  East  were  well  aware  of  Morris's  desire  for  transfer 
to  a  philosophical  chair,  and  stood  ready  to  second  his 
wishes.  Thanks  to  the  good  oflSces  of  Professor  Henry 
B.  Smith,  he  was  under  consideration  by  the  authorities 
of  Bowdoin  College  for  the  chair  of  philosophy  and, 
apparently,  the  chaplaincy.  And  the  following  letter, 
from  Smith,  throws  some  light  upon  the  situation. 

"New  York,  Oct.  16th,  1872. 

"My  dear  Prof.  Morris,  I  think  it  only  right  that  you  should 
see  the  enclosed  letter  of  Presd.  Chamberlain,  before  I  answer 
it  finally.  He  has  been  all  along  strongly  inclined  to  you,  and 
would  be  a  good  friend. 

"You  must,  of  course,  decide  the  matter.  I  think  they  would 
agree  that  you  should  teach  and  not  preach.  /  should  have 
said,  that  while  you  might  be  wavering  on  some  points  of  critic- 
ism, etc., — and  as  to  the  strictest  theory  of  inspiration:  yet, 
that  I  believed  you  were  planted  on  the  main  principles  of  the 
Christian  system  (as  distinguished  from  materiahsm,  pantheism 
— or  any  form  of  infidelity) :  and,  that  your  philosophical  teach- 
ings would  be  in  harmony  with — in  fact  reflecting — theism  and 
Christianity. 

"Do  not  decide  too  hastily  (let  me  ask  you).  Many  men 
now-a-days  must  pass  through  doubt,  and  conflict.  As  far  as 
the  present  offer  (post)  is  concerned,  I  think  the  only  essential 
point  is  this, — Whether,  on  the  whole,  you  feel  yourself  to  be 
grounded  in  the  spiritual  principles  of  the  Christian  faith,  as 
compared  and  contrasted  with  any  other  sj^stem. 

"Prof.  Botta's  Appendix  is  in  type;  Presd.  Porter's  has  not 
arrived. 

"Ever  truly  Yrs. 

"Henry  B.  Smith." 

The  enclosure  referred  to  reads  thus: 


132 


THE   LIFE   AND    WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


133 


i; 


*' Brunswick, 
''Oct.  9th,  1872 
*'My  dear  Professor  Smith, 

''Some  of  our  watchmen  on  the  walls  think  Professor  Morris 
may  have  tendencies  to  Rationalism,  or  at  all  events  may  not 
be  in  strict  accordance  with  the  "orthodox"  faith. 

"I  regard  the  chair  of  Philosophy  as  of  more  importance  than 
the  Presidency.     We  need  a  strong,  sound  man. 

"May  I  venture  to  ask  for  a  word  in  confidence  as  to  Prof. 
Morris.  He  has  written  me  withdrawing  his  name;  but  I  never 
supposed  he  knew  of  our  thoughts  towards  him.  I  have  not  yet 
answered  his  letter,  and  hope  to  hear  such  satisfactory  accounts 
of  him  in  all  respects,  that  I  can  insist  upon  retaining  him. 
"With  thanks  for  your  former  kindness,  I  am, 

"very  truly, 

"Your  friend  and  servt., 
"Joshua  L.  Chamberlain." 

Writing  on  27th  December,  1872,  to  his  friend,  Madame 
Joel,  of  Lausanne,— a  letter  which,  by  the  way,  attests 
his  facile  mastery  of  French,— Morris  records  his  "great 
preoccupation"  with  the  Ueberweg  translation,  and  adds: 

"I  have  been  specially  troubled  about  the  question  of  a  change 
of  position.  They  have  offered  me  a  place  as  professor  of 
Philosophy  in  a  College  in  the  State  of  Maine.  It  is  uncertain 
as  yet  whether  I  shall  accept.  But  you  can  well  understand 
that  this  has  given  me  much  thought." 

Characteristically,  too,  he  relates  that  he  had  just 
attended  a  concert  by  Rubinstein,  in  Detroit,— "a 
veritable   revelation   to   me;    I    never   heard   anything 

like  it." 

The  refusal  of  the  call  to  Bowdoin  was  made  public 
in  the  middle  of  January,  1873. 

Meanwhile,  the  translation  of  Ueberweg's  History 
of  Philosophy  cannot  but  have  absorbed  him.  The 
first   volume   was   published   in   America,   in   1871,   in 


Great  Britain,  in  1872;  the  second  followed  in  1873,  in 
both  countries.  The  successful  completion  of  this 
most  exacting  labour  made  his  name  familiar  in  academic 
circles,  affected  his  future  career,  and,  as  will  appear 
presently,  his  relations  nearer  home.  At  the  time  it  was 
the  best  work  of  the  kind  that  had  been  accomplished. 
As  one  critic  says: 

"Morris  shows  marked  distinction  in  this  line  for  so  young 
a  man." 

And  Frieze,  himself  a  master  of  languages,  quick  to 
recognize  merit,  wrote: 

"The  series  of  great  works  ...  at  that  time  being  published 
under  the  supervision  of  Professor  Schaff,  included  in  the  plan  a 
translation  of  Ueberweg's  History  of  Philosophy.  Mr.  Morris 
was  at  once  engaged  to  undertake  the  translation;  and  certainly 
no  greater  proof  of  confidence  in  his  attainments  could  have  been 
given;  for  the  perfect  translation  of  such  a  work  presupposes  a 
knowledge  of  the  whole  field  of  philosophical  reasoning,  and  an 
absolute  command  of  the  phraseolog}^  of  its  hterature,  both  in 
the  original  and  in  the  language  of  the  translation.  When  the 
translation  of  Professor  Morris  has  become  so  widely  known,  I 
need  not  say  that  it  has  abundantly  proved  his  admirable  fitness 
for  the  task  that  was  assigned  to  him."* 

The  old  love  for  music  must  also  have  exerted  a  healing 
charm;  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  early  appearances 
in  public  were  as  a  performer.  The  local  Ladies' 
Library  Association  had  been  founded  recently,  and 
concerts  were  one  means  adopted  to  raise  a  book  fund. 
On  several  occasions,  between  1873  and  1875,  we  find 
Morris  playing  with  Frieze  at  such  recitals.  He  also 
presided  at  the  instrument,  when  the  new  organ  of  the 
Congregational  church  was  dedicated  in  the  spring  of 
1876.     On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  till  1874,  three 

*  Michigan  Argonaut,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  69-70. 


134 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK  OF 


and  a  half  years  after  his  appointment  to  his  chair,  that 
he  could  persuade  himself  to  take  part  in  the  series  of 
addresses,  of  a  religious  nature,  given  by  members  of  the 
Faculty   before   the    whole    student   body.     Moreover, 
he    was   very   sparing    of    such    appearances;    between 
February,  1874,  and  May,  1882,  he  spoke  but  thrice; 
and  Dr.  Angell  had  to  exert  all  his  arts  to    persuade 
him  to  undertake  even  these.     Devout  by  nature  and 
nurture,  filled  with  a  strong  sense  of  personal  respons- 
ibility, he,  no  doubt,  bethought    him  of    the  precept, 
"Physician,  heal  thyself."     But,  thanks  to  deepening 
philosophical  grasp,  to  the  courage  which  '  goes  out  into 
the  Infinite  alone'  and,  in  some  part,  to  the  'walk  and 
conversation'     of    friends,— Frieze    and    Mrs.     Angell 
particularly,— he   fought   the   battle   through    step   by 
step,  gaining  at  length  a  reasonable  faith,  whereon  his 
feet   stood   firmly   planted  to   his   life's   end.     On  the 
Second  Sunday  in  Lent  (9th  March),  1873,  he  received 
Confirmation  and,  ever  after,  took  comfort  and  found 
rest  in  the  historic  doctrine  and  orderly  worship  of  the 
Church  of  his  English  forefathers. 

As  the  years  sped,  his  position  in  the  university  was 
not  without  its  anomalies.  He  had  accepted  the  chair 
of  iModern  Languages  faute  de  mieux:  in  view  of  his 
training  and  vital  interests,  it  was  a  fis  aller  more  or 
less.  The  academic  w^orld  understood  the  situation, 
especially  after  the  publication  of  the  Ueberweg  version. 
In  1872,  as  we  saw,  Morris  received  a  call  to  teach 
philosophy  in  Bowdoin  College;  similar  offers  were  made 
him  by  the  University  of  California,  and  the  City  College 
of  New  York,  in  1878;  by  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
in  1879.  Since  the  ejection  of  Tappan,  who  had  con- 
ferred high  distinction  upon  the  chair,  the  history  of  the 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


135 


professorship   of   philosophy   had   been   somewhat   un- 
fortunate. 

''For  several  years  after  President  Tappan's  withdrawal,  the 
chair  was  incompetently  filled  by  a  man  whom,  tradition  savs, 
a  certain  church  became  tired  of,  and  palmed  off  on  the  Uni- 
versity, because  it  could  not  get  rid  of  him  in  any  other  way. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  this  gentlemen  finally  resigned,  and  for  two 
years  Dr.  Haven  occupied  this  chair  .  .  .  besides  attending  to 
his  other  duties.  Under  such  a  condition  of  affairs,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  the  seniors  found  themselves  gentlemen  of  leisure."* 

Moreover,  one  year  before  Morris  was  called  to  the 
professorship  of  Modern  Languages,  the  philosophical 
chair  had  been  filled,  on  the  resignation  of  Haven,  by  an 
appointee  who,  while  a  persona  grata  with  many  who 
were  representative  of  the  constituency  of  the  institution 
at  that  time,  thanks  to  his  great  natural  gifts  as  a  preacher, 
was,  perhaps  for  this  very  reason,  thoroughly  character- 
istic of  the  period  in  the  weightier  matters  of  technical 
preparation  and  expert  competence.  Older  students 
had  sensed  the  need,  and  stated  it  in  good  set  terms. 
"  We  want  a  man  who  has  made  this  study  his  specialty, 
and  can  infuse  life  into  the  dry  bones  of  philosophical 
discussion. "t  They  got  a  real  personality,  but  not  a 
specialist. 

In  almost  every  respect,  the  contrast  between  Morris 
and  Cocker  could  not  have  been  greater.  Behind  the 
one  lay  the  entire  New  England  tradition  of  passion  for 
education.  Bred  in  this,  he  was  master  of  his  tools; 
"the  only  languages  that  Philosophy  has  ever  learned 
to  speak" — Greek  and  German — were  familiar  to  him. 
He  was  at  home  with  Plato  and  Aristotle,  with  Kant 

*  Chronicle,  Vol.  I.,  p.  25.     Cf.  Ten  Brook's  History,  pp.  256  f. 
t  Chronicle,  Vol.  I.,  p.  25. 


136 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


137 


and  Hegel,  in  the  primary  sources.  In  like  manner,  he 
had  direct  access  to  Lucretius,  Cicero  and  Seneca,  among 
the  ancients,  to  Descartes,  Spinoza  and  Leibniz,  among 
the  moderns.  Cocker,  on  the  contrary,  born  in  York- 
shire (1821),  at  a  time  when  English  dissenters  had 
little  part  in  such  national  education  as  there  was  then, 
enjoyed  no  schooling  after  his  thirteenth  year,  and  had 
gone  into  business  as  a  boy.     He  says: 

"I  was  accountant  in  the  largest  house  [woollen]  in  England 
for  twelve  years  [i.  e.,  from  his  eighteenth  till  his  twenty-ninth 
year],  and  then  went  to  Australia,  and  was  accountant  for  a 
large  shipping  firm  [mining  supplies]  there,  and  their  personal 
agent."* 

Broken  financially  by  the  panic  of  1856,  he  salved 
enough  from  the  ruin  to  buy  a  small  vessel,  with  which 
he  traded  in  the  Fiji  Islands.  Wrecked  on  the  island  of 
Tonga,  he  was  rescued,  when  in  imminent  danger  from 
cannibals,  and  brought  to  Sydney,  New  South  Wales, 
whence  he  made  his  way — in  dire  straits — to  the  United 
States  and  to  Adrian,  Michigan,  where  he  had  a  friend 
in  the  Methodist  ministry.  Having  been  a  lay  exhorter 
as  a  youth  in  England,  he  found  it  easy  to  obtain  a 
pulpit,  and  began  life  over  again,  in  charge  of  the  Method- 
ist church  at  Palmyra,  Michigan.  His  genuine  gifts 
as  a  preacher  were  soon  noised  abroad,  and  he  was 
advanced  to  important  pastorates  in  the  Detroit  Con- 
ference, where  his  fervid  eloquence  made  him  a  power. 
During  these  years,  immensely  to  his  credit,  he  educated 
himself  as  best  he  could  and,  as  happened  so  often  in 
these  davs,  found  himself  transferred  from  the  pulpit 
to    the    philosophical    chair.     His    public    gifts,— there 

*  Report  of  the  Joint  Committee  of  the  Michigan  Legislature  of  1877 
on  Alleged  Defalcations  etc.,  p.  472. 


are  those  still  alive  who  judge  him  the  finest  preacher 
they    ever    heard,— his    earnestness,    warm-heartedness 
and  geniality,  backed  by  his  varied  experiences,  enabled 
him  to  adjust  himself  to  the  contemporary  social  environ- 
ment with  the  utmost  success.     Dr.  Angell  says:     "he 
was  like  a  father  to  every  student,"  and  "a  great  vital 
force  in  the  moral  life."     With  the  students,   he  was 
"king   of  them   all"— this  by  comparison  with  other 
professors.     They    "took    an    uplift"    away    from    his 
class-room,   notwithstanding  his  lack  of  system.     The 
local  press  records  that,  on  the  occasion  of  his  departure 
for  a  European  tour,  one  thousand  students,  a  brass 
band  at  their  head,  escorted  him  to  the  station!     These 
qualities,  coupled  with  a  certain  native  acuteness,  atoned 
for  very  inadequate  preparation,  and  elicited  applause 
from  the  average  man.     On  the  other  hand,  his  mind 
being   strongly   of   the   intuitive   or   imaginative   cast. 
Cocker   could   not  sift   evidence,*   and  exercised  little 
influence  with  his  colleagues.     He  knew  no  language 
except  English.     Thus,  although  he  filled  a  distinct  place, 
with  credit  to  himself,  with  benefit  to  his  pupils,  and  to 
the  university  in  some  of  its  relations  to  the  immediate 
public,  he  could  not  but  be  aware  of  his  professional 
inferiority  to  Morris.     Equally,  this  unavoidable  situ- 
ation could  not  but  place  a  bar  upon  Morris's  hopes  of 
transference    to    the    Philosophical    Department.    The 
very  different  gifts  and,  consequently,  spheres,  of  the 
two    men,    assisted,    undoubtedly,    by    Morris's    sweet 
disposition,    softened    whatever    incompatibility    there 

*  Cf.  e.  g.,  Report  of  Joint  Committee  of  the  Michigan  Legislature  of 
1877  on  Alleged  Defalcations,  etc.,  pp.  470  f.,  or  the  naive  attitude  towards 
the  Timaeus  of  Plato  and  to  the  Theistic  Proofs,  in  Christianity  and 
Greek  Philosophy,  pp.  335  f.,  487  f. 


1 


138 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


might  have  been,  even  although  one  notable  member  of 
the  staff  was  in  the  habit  of  exalting  Morris  at  the 
expense  of  his  colleague.  The  ill-starred  dispute  over 
the  finances  of  the  chemical  laboratory,*  which  burst 
in  1875,  and  continued  for  some  years,  becoming  a 
lively  issue  in  State  politics,  and  dividing  the  university 
into  factions,  from  the  governing  Board  down,  did  not 
help  matters.  Cocker  made  open  cause  with  one  side; 
Morris,  although  never  a  participant,  was  understood 
to  sympathize  with  the  other.  Intense  feeling  was 
generated,  and  exceeding  bitter  asperities  prevailed. 
Inevitably,  questions  of  appointment,  promotion  and 
the  like,  felt  the  effect.  Indeed,  it  was  little  short  of 
providential  that  irremediable  blunders  were  not  per- 
petrated. 

In  these  circumstances,  Morris  certainly  welcomed 
an  invitation,  which  he  received  in  December,  1877,  to 
become  Lecturer  on  History  of  Philosophy  and  Ethics 
in  Johns  Hopkins  University.  He  entered  upon  the 
duties  in  January,  1878,  and  thus  began  a  relationship 
that  lasted  for  seven  years.  At  first,  philosophy  being 
undeveloped,  class-room  instruction  had  not  been 
organized,  and  Morris  took  part  only  in  the  Hopkins 
Hall  Lectures,t  which  the  official  Circulars  describe  as 
follows : 

"These  courses  are  academic  lectures,  designed  primarily  for 
the  members  of  the  University,  and  supplementary  to  the 
regular  class-room  work  of  the  students.  As  the  members  of  the 
University  rarely  require  the  entire  room,  the  Trustees  have 
great  pleasure  in  inviting  other  persons,  not  connected  with 
the  University,  to  attend.  As  these  lectures  are  not  intended 
for  popular  entertainment,  but  for  the  instruction  of  students, 

*  Cf .  The  Reminiscences  of  James  Burrill  Angell,  pp.  246  f . 
t  Cf.  The  Life  of  Daniel  Colt  Oilman,  Fabian  Franklin,  p.  242. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


139 


those  persons  first  receive  tickets  .  .  .  who  are  known  to  be 
especially  interested  in  a  particular  course.  Preference  is  thus 
given,  according  to  the  character  of  the  course,  to  teachers  in 
other  institutions,  pubhc  and  private;  students  of  medicine, 
law,  etc.  .  .  .  The  hall  is  full  when  200  hearers  are  present;  it  is 
uncomfortable  if  more  are  admitted.  ...  To  give  the  lectures 
elsewhere  would  alter  their  character  as  a  part  of  the  ordinary 
academic  work  of  the  University." 

Thus,  in  January,  1878,  Morris  gave  a  course  of  twenty 
lectures  on  History  of  Philosophy,  with  an  average 
attendance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-four.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  duties  as  an  examiner  were 
assigned  to  him  forthwith,  and  that,  in  this  year,  he 
acted  as  examiner  of  Professor  Josiah  Royce,  on  the 
major  subject  (History  of  Philosophy),  and  of  Professor 
Ernest  G.  Sihler,  on  the  minor  subject  (Ancient  Philo- 
sophy), for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  In 
January,  1879,  he  gave  a  second  course  of  Hopkins  Hall 
lectures,  entitled  Topics  Historical  and  Practical  in 
Ethics,  which  "attracted  wide  attention." 

In  1878  and  1879,  the  Johns  Hopkins  work  had 
demanded  his  presence  during  the  month  of  January 
alone  and,  as  this  synchronized  with  part  of  the  Christ- 
mas recess  and  with  the  interval  between  semesters  at 
Ann  Arbor,  his  teaching  there  was  not  broken  seriously. 
But  the  impetus  given  and  the  interest  aroused  by  him 
in  Baltimore,  led  the  Trustees  to  make  more  adequate 
provision  for  the  subject.  Morris  was  thus  confronted 
with  the  question,  not  simply  of  his  relation  to  the 
University  of  Michigan,  but  of  abandoning  modern 
languages  finally,  to  give  his  entire  time  to  philosophy. 
Two  letters,  one  personal,  the  other  official,  of  date, 
February,  1879,  from  President  Oilman,  explain  the 
circumstances  and,  if  one  read  between  the  lines,  shed 


140 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE^  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


141 


light   upon   Morris's   aspirations   and   fundamental   in- 
terests.    In  the  private  communication,  Dr.  Oilman  says : 

''I  need  hardly  add,  after  all  our  conversations,  to  the  enclosed 
official  letter.  The  action  was  cordial  and,  I  believe,  in  exact 
accordance  with  our  understanding.  I  do  not  wonder  that  you 
rehnquish  the  City  College  suggestions.  I  hope  that  in  the 
East  or  West  you  will  find  some  opening  to  enable  you  to  bring 
out  your  philosophical  studies, — and  if  I  see  any  chance  to  say 
a  good  word  you  may  be  sure  that  I  shall  speak  gladly." 

The  official  notice  was  this: 

"Our  Trustees  yesterday  [3d  February],  voted  to  invite  you 
to  lecture  before  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  on  the  History 
of  Philosophy  and  on  Ethics,  for  the  next  three  years,  at  an 
annual  salary  of  $1500,  with  this  understanding,  that  your  resid- 
ence among  us  would  extend  through  three  months  annually. 
I  sincerely  hope  that  we  may  have  the  benefit  of  your  coopera- 
tion." 

As  a  result,  Morris  placed  his  resignation  of  the  chair 
of  Modern  Languages  in  the  hands  of  the  Michigan 
Regents  in  June,  1879.  This  was  accepted  with  deep 
regret,  and  a  laudatory  appreciation  of  his  services 
spread  upon  the  minutes.  His  pupil  and  friend,  Edward 
L.  Walter,  whose  tragic  death  on  the  French  steamer, 
La  Bonrgoyne,  lost  in  collision'on  4th  July,  1898,  proved 
a  deplorable  loss  to  the  university,  was  appointed  to  fill 
the  vacancy.  Walter,  who  was  in  Europe  at  the  time, 
desired  to  prolong  his  stay,  and,  to  accomodate  him, 
Morris  performed  the  duties  of  his  former  chair  during 
the  first  semester  of  the  academic  year  1879-80.  In 
the  '*  second-half  year,"  he  entered  upon  his  enlarged 
activities  at  Baltimore,  in  conjunction  with  i\Ir.  Allan 
Marquand,  afterwards  of  Princeton  University,  w^ho 
had  charge  of  the  courses  in  Logic.  Accordingly,  during 
the  early  months  of  1880,  he  taught  three  classes,  as 


follows :— History  of  British  Philosophy,  thrice  weekly: 
German  .Estheticg,  and  Ethics,  each  once  weekly. 
He  also  delivered  a  public  course  of  twelve  lectures, 
published  in  the  following  autumn,  in  his  well-known 
book,  British  Thought  and  Thinkers. 

In  a  Christmas  letter  (1879)  to  Madame  Joel,  Morris 
savs : 

"I  am  soon  to  abandon  my  position  in  the  University  of 
Michigan,  in  order  to  give  myself  entirely  to  philosophy.  .  .  . 
I  do  not  know  as  yet  whether  I  shall  remove  to  Baltimore  per- 
manently— I  expect  so." 

Fate  willed  otherwise.     Throughout  this  period,  he 
maintained   his  house  in  Ann  Arbor  which,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  continued  to  be  his  headquarters,  so  that  his 
Johns    Hopkins    visits    were    visits   from    home.     His 
success  at  Baltimore,  his  position  of  considerable  and 
growing  authority  in  philosophical  circles,  and  his  proven 
capacity  as  a  teacher,  warned  the  Michigan  administ- 
ration that  he  was  too  valuable  a  man  by  far  to  lose. 
So  Frieze,  who  again  occupied  the  Acting  Presidency, 
during  the  absence  of  Dr.  Angell  on  the  Chinese  diplom- 
atic   mission,    came    to    the    rescue.       He    had    great 
influence  wath  Cocker,  who  was  now  not  in  the  best  of 
health,  and  needed  assistance.     As  a  result  of  his  judic- 
ious manipulation,   Morris    was   appointed    to  a   new^ 
professorship — Ethics,  History  of  Philosophy  and  Logic 
— on  30th  June,  1881;  the  arrangement  being,  that  he 
was  to  teach  at  Michigan  one  half  year,  at  Johns  Hopkins 
the  other.     This  apt  solution  saved  Morris  for  Michigan, 
and  yet  made  it  clear  that  the  premier  chair  of  Philosophy 
still  belonged  to  Cocker,  who  informed  his  friend,  former 
Senator  Campbell,  that  he  welcomed  the  plan.     At  the 
same  time,  Michigan  conferred  her  Doctorate  in  Philo- 
sophy upon  ]\Iorris,  in  recognition  of  his  eminence. 


i 


142 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


In  his  Report  for  1881,  President  Oilman  writes: 

**  It  has  been  from  no  want  of  interest  in  philosophical  studies, 
that  we  have  been  delayed  in  making  permanent  arrangements  in 
regard  to  them:  but  the  scheme  of  lectures  as  now  arranged 
offers  some  noteworthy  opportunities.  Professor  George  S. 
Morris,  who  has  spent  a  portion  of  every  year  among  us  since 
1878,  continues  to  lecture  upon  history  of  philosophy  and  on 
ethics.  The  fruit  of  his  call  to  a  congenial  work  may  be  seen 
not  only  in  his  own  published  volumes,  but  also  in  the  series  of 
philosophical  studies  which  he  is  editing,  beginning  with  his  own 
study  of  Kant's  Kritik,  which  was  given  to  his  students  in  this 
university  in  the  course  of  last  winter.  Mr.  Charles  S.  Pierce, 
who  has  been  for  a  long  period  a  close  student  of  the  processes 
employed  in  various  branches  of  physical  investigation,  and  who 
is  a  proficient  in  more  than  one  department  of  science,  now  offers 
to  our  students  instruction  in  logic,  or  the  method  of  methods, 
particularly  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  expecting  to  be 
engaged  in  investigation  and  who  need  fundamental  guidance  in 
the  principles  which  underHe  the  discovery  of  scientific  truths. 
....  Professor  G.  Stanley  HaU,  Ph.D.,  will  hereafter  direct 
our  students  in  psychology,  a  service  for  which  he  has  become 
fitted  by  his  historical  studies,  by  prolonged  work  in  the  labor- 
atories of  Leipsic  and  Berlin,  and  by  varied  experiences  as  a 
lecturer  in  Harvard,  WiUiams,  and  other  colleges.  Dr.  Hall  is 
desirous  of  awakening  the  attention  of  our  students,  particularly 
of  those  who  expect  to  become  teachers,  to  the  importance  of 
scientific  pedagogics,  and  Tvnll  doubtless  offer  some  definite 
instruction  in  this  subject."* 

The  absence  of  Morris  from  the  ^Michigan  staff  thus 
covered  the  academic  year  1880-81.  At  this,  he  was 
resident  in  Ann  Arbor  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
time,  engaged  busily  in  study  and  writing.  The  total 
period  of  his  residence  in  Baltimore,  during  eight  years, 
was  less  than  eighteen  months. 

One  most  important  event,  of  much^moment  for  his 

*  Pp.  47-8. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


143 


future,  remains  to  be  recorded.    On  29th  June,  1876, 
he  was  married,  at  Ann  Arbor,  to  Miss  Victoria  Celle, 
daughter  of  Charles  Antoine  Celle  and  Maria  (Rogers) 
Celle,  of  New  York  City.    Miss  Celle  was  an  old  friend 
of  the  family  of  Professor  Edward  Swift  Dunster,  of  the 
Michigan  Medical  Faculty,  with  whom  Morris  also  was  on 
terms  of  intimacy.      In  due  time,  a  son  and  a  daughter 
were  born  to  them,  and  a  home  life,  singularly  bright 
and  happy,  grew  up.     Morris  took  intense  delight  in 
his  wife  and  children,  and  his  untimely  death  was  a 
peculiarly    irreparable    loss    to    them.     The    only    son, 
once  a  pupil  of  my  own,  is  now  a  well-known  phj^sician, 
who  has  occupied  positions  on  the  teaching  staff  of 
Johns    Hopkins    University    and    of    the    Washington 
University  of  St.  Louis,  and  is  now  Frederick  Forch- 
heimer  Professor  of  Medicine  in  the  Medical  School 
of  the  University  of  Cincinnati  which,  thanks  to  its 
magnificent  hospital,  enjoys  such  fair  prospects. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


145 


CHAPTER  VI 

Withdrawal  from  Johns  Hopkins.    Michigan: 

The  Second  Period 

(1881-89) 

]\Iorris  was  now  forty  years  of  age,  his  powers  verging 
upon  maturity.  His  occasional  writings,  such  as  the 
classical  article  on  Trendelenburg  (1874),  the  London 
Victoria  Institute  lecture  On  Final  Cause  as  a  Principle 
of  Cognition  (1875),  The  Philosophy  of  Art  (1876),  and 
the  account  of  Spinoza's  system  (1877),  had  made  him 
further  known  to  specialists,  while  his  first  book,  British 
Thought  and  Thinkers  (1880),  had  gained  him  a  wider 
audience.  The  stimulus  of  the  "congenial  work"  at 
Johns  Hopkins  was  seen  in  the  admirable  account  of 
Kant's  Transcendental  Deduction  of  the  Categories  (1881), 
and  in  the  Series  of  German  Philosophical  Classics  for 
English  Readers,  which  he  originated,  edited,  and  launched 
with  his  Critical  Exposition  of  Kant's  Critique  of  Pure 
Reason  (1882).  He  had  been  selected  by  the  editors 
of  the  American  Supplement  to  the  Encyclopcedia  Brit- 
annica  to  contribute  certain  articles  to  their  first  volume. 

In  February  and  March,  1881,  he  gave  a  compre- 
hensive course  of  Hopkins  Hall  lectures  on  the  History 
of  Philosophy  in  Germany  from  Kant  to  Hegel,  as  fol- 
lows: Comparative  Biography  of  Leibniz,  Kant,  Fichte, 
Schelling  and  Hegel;  the  Theory  of  Knowledge,  as 
developed  by  these  philosophers;  the  Theory  of  Being, 
comparative  view  of  the  doctrines  of  the  same  philoso- 
phers; Theory  of  Nature,   comparative   view;   Theory 

144 


of  Man,  comparative  view;  and  Philosophy  in  German 
Literature.     He    also    taught    regular    classes    in    the 
History  of  Philosophy,  and  Ethics,  and  a  seminarv  in 
Aristotle's  Ethics.     He  was  active  in  the  meetings  of 
the  Metaphysical  Club,  of  which  he  became  president, 
where  we  meet,  as  contributors,  some  names  destined 
to  become  notable  afterwards,— E.  B.  Wilson,  W.  T. 
Sedgwick,  Christine  Ladd,  Josiah  Royce,  B.  I.  Gilman, 
C.   R.   Lanman  and   G.   Stanley  Hall,   among  others. 
Classes  in  Greek  philosophy,  and  Ethics  followed,  in 
1882,  together  with  a  course  on  Kant's  Critique  of  Pure 
Reason,    published    soon    afterwards,    in    the    German 
Philosophical  Classics.     Major  courses  were  now  offered, 
in  Logic  and  Psychology  respectively,  by  Messrs.  C.  S. 
Pierce  and  G.  Stanley  Hall,  while  undergraduate  instruc- 
tion was  given  by  Mr.   B.   E.  Smith,  from  Amherst 
College.     The    programme    for    the    academic    year, 
beginning  September,  1882,  lists  Morris  for  the  following: 
History  of  Philosophy  in  Great  Britain;  Philosophical 
Seminary,  for  the  study  of  selected  texts,  ancient  and 
modern,  relating  to  the  science  of  knowledge;  Ethics, 
with  especial  reference  to  F.  H.  Bradley's  Ethical  Studies; 
and  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  History.     He  is  also  advertised 
to  offer  a  course  of  eight  public  lectures,  in  January, 
1883,  The  Philosophy  of  Religion  in  its  Relation  to  Christ- 
ianity.    This   proved   to    be   a   repetition   of  the   Ely 
Lectures.     Much  to  his  gratification,  Morris  had  been 
recalled  to  old  scenes  of  student  davs,  in  Union  Theo- 
logical   Seminary,    to    succeed   J.    W.    Dawson,    James 
McCosh,   A.   P.   Peabodv  and  Henrv  Calderwood,   as 
lecturer  on  the  Ely  Foundation.    The  result  was  his  prin- 
cipal pronouncement  on  the  relations  between  philosophy 
and  religion — Philosophy  and  Christianity  (1883). 
11 


146 


THE   LIFE   AND  WORK  OF 


Continuing  his  Johns  Hopkins  service,  in  the  first 
semester  of  1883-4  he  gave  courses  in  History  of  German 
Philosophy  and  in  general  History  of  Philosophy,  as 
well  as  seminar  instruction  in  Spinoza's  Ethics.  One 
year  later,  he  offered  courses  in  History  of  Philosophy 
in  Greece,  in  Ethics,  and  a  new  course,  on  a  subject  now 
engaging  his  attention,  Philosophy  of  the  State.  He 
also  delivered  four  Hopkins  Hall  lectures  on  the  Philo- 
sophy of  Social  Relations. 

The  death  of  Cocker  (April,  1883)  having  entirely 
altered  the  situation  at  Michigan,  Morris  found  it 
impracticable  to  continue  his  labours  at  Baltimore,  and 
withdrew  at  the  end  of  the  first  semester  of  1884-5, 
not,  however,  before  he  had  gathered  a  remarkable 
band  of  students,  among  whom  we  find  Professors 
John  Dewey,  Joseph  Jastrow,  Henry  L.  Osborn,  Ben- 
jamin C.  Burt,  W.  H.  Howell,  Allan  Marquand,  Richard 
C.  Burton  and  Fred  M.  Taylor.  Most  fittingly,  his 
final  appearance  in  Baltimore  was  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Metaphysical  Club,  on  27th  January,  1885,  when  he 
read  a  paper  entitled  The  Method  of  Philosophy.  There 
is  evidence  to  the  effect  that,  with  his  resignation.  Philo- 
sophy at  once  dropped  to  a  secondary  position  in  Johns 
Hopkins,  where  it  remained  for  many  years. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  when  Morris  was 
appointed  to  the  Lectureship  in  Ethics  at  Johns  Hopkins 
(1877),  he  anticipated,  and  was  led  to  believe,  that  in 
due  time  he  would  be  placed  in  full  charge  of  the  philo- 
sophical work  there  as  professor.  Events  so  conspired 
that  this  was  not  to  be.  As  a  consequence,  the  Baltimore 
institution  lost  a  unique  opportunity  to  assume  in 
philosophy  the  leadership  which  it  acquired  in  some 
other  departments;  in  all  probability,  also,  philosophical 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


147 


instruction  in  the  United  States  was  retarded.  On  the 
other  hand.  Harvard  was  left  free  to  seize  the  primacy 
in  the  East,  while  at  Michigan,  thanks  to  Morris, 
Philosophy  began  to  gain  the  unusual  influence  exerted 
by  it  ever  since.  It  is  exceedingly  difficult  now  to 
adjudicate  fairly  upon  the  pros  and  cons  as  they  event- 
uated at  Johns  Hopkins,  although  the  die  was  cast  ere 
financial  stress  overtook  the  university.  I  can  only 
attempt  an  interpretation  of  what  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  a  serious  blunder  in  academic  perspective,  if 
nothing  more. 

Dr.  Angell  has  told  me  often  that  Morris  was  disap- 
pointed by  the  lukewarmness  of  the  Baltimore  adminis- 
tration towards  Philosophy.  The  failure  to  lend  it  the 
support  and  recognition,  bestowed  so  freely  upon  philo- 
logy and  the  laboratory  sciences,  hurt  him.  Other 
authoritative  sources  of  information  serve  to  confirm 
this  judgment.*     Political,   industrial,   theological   and 

*  It  is  fair  to  say  that  one  incident  appears  to  traverse  this  unanimity. 
In  September  and  October,  1880,  Flint,  then  professor  of  Divinity  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  whither  he  had  been  called,  early  in  1876, 
from  the  chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews, 
delivered  the  Stone  Lectures  at  Princeton  Theological  Seminary.  Ac- 
cording to  his  biographer,  the  impression  made  was  so  "deep,"  that, 
"in  1881,  the  authorities  of  John  [sic]  Hopkins  University  offered  him 
the  Professorship  of  Philosophy  in  that  Institution,  and  when  they 
failed  to  induce  him  to  accept  it,  they  asked  him  to  deliver  a  course 
of  lectures  on  some  philosophical  subject,  for  which  they  were  prepared 
to  give  a  thousand  dollars"  (The  Life  of  Robert  Flint,  Donald  Mac- 
millan,  pp.  363-4).  I  take  it  that  this  is  correct,  although  during  most 
confidential  and  decisive  communications  with  Flint  at  the  time  of  my 
call  to  Michigan,  he  never  so  much  as  mentioned  the  matter  (cf.  Ibid. 
pp.  499  f .) !  The  proposal  consorts  with  Dr.  Angell's  idea,  that  Oilman 
desired  above  all  things  to  secure  a  'safe'  man.  And  it  is  in  itself  a 
farther  commentary  upon  his  blindness  to  the  tendencies  of  the  'scien- 
tific' anti-philosophy  then  influential  at  Johns  Hopkins,  no  less  then 
upon  his  inability  to  sense  the  real  inwardness  of  Morris's  standpoint. 


148 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


social  interests  had  been,  and  were,  destined  to  deter 
Philosophy  from  continuous  critical  treatment  of  funda- 
mental problems  in  the  United  States,  and  subsidiary 
questions,  as  philosophers  account  them,  forged  to  the 
front.     In    the    same    way,    the    zeal    for    educational 
methodism  led  many  to  suppose  that  Philosophy  con- 
sisted in  that  special  analysis  of  common  sense  which 
leads  straight  to  an  empirical  psychology.     Significantly 
enough,  then,  official  records  of  the  university  indicate 
that  after  1885,  Philosophy  became  secondary  to  Psychol- 
ogy and  ^Pedagogies'— early  signs  of  a  tendency  that  has 
smce  wrought  untold  havoc  upon  the  advance  of  philo- 
sophical   Wissenschaft   in    this    country.     Significantly 
enough,  too,  President  Gilman  records,  in  his  Revort 
for  1886: 

"FoT  several  years  a  metaphysical  society  was  maintained 
part  of  the  time  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  C.  S.  Peirce,  a  part 
of  the  time  under  that  of  Professor  G.  S.  Morris,— but  the 
association  is  no  longer  maintained."* 

After  summarizing  Morris's  work,  the  same  Rejyort 
proceeds  to  show— quite  unconsciously,  of  course- 
how  subordinate  Philosophy  had  become;  the  idea  being, 
I  infer,  that  it  did  not  offer  opportunities  for  'original 
Research'! t  Fortunately,  the  lapse  of  time  enables  us 
to  see  that  we  are  not  dealing  here  with  institutions  or 
individuals,  but  with  a  world-wide  movement. 

I  have  given,  in  chapter  viii  of  Flint's  Life,  a  full  account  of  his  philo- 
sophical  teaching.  It  shows  how  'safe'  he  was.  Oilman's  reasons  for 
seeking  'safety'  may  be  gathered  from  the  following:  The  Launching  of  a 
University  and  Other  Papers  (1906),  p.  23;  University  Problems  in  the 
United  States  (1898),  pp.  39.  f.  56. 
*  P.  27. 

t  Pp.  46  f.  Cf.  Report  for  1888,  pp.  89  f.  It  was  resolved  to  "dis- 
continue the  existing  Metaphysical  Club"  on  18th  Nov.,  1884;  Cf. 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Circulars,  Vol.  IV.,  No.  35,  p.  28.    ' 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


149 


Johns  Hopkins  University  and  its  president  in  their 
way,  Morris  in  his,  and  many  others  were  caught  in 
one  of  those  streams  of  tendency  that  are  no  respecters 
of  persons.  Science,  at  the  flood  of  the  Darwinian 
theory,  was  sweeping  everything  before  it,  and  philo- 
sophy had  become  tolerable  only  as  an  introduction  to 
scientific  method.  It  was  unlucky  for  Morris,  at  the 
moment,  that  systematic  philosophy — the  only  philosophy 
worth  the  name  wissenschaftlich — had  made  but  little 
impression  in  the  United  States,  and  that,  as  a  result, 
his  critical  attitude  towards  the  premature  generaliz- 
ations associated  with  science  was  taken  for  a  reaction 
to  Protestant  dogmatics;  he  was  supposed  to  be  essen- 
tially inimical  to  scientific  research,  not  merely  in 
physical  but  in  humanistic  affairs.  Naturalists  did 
not  like  his  'transcendentalism,'  historians  and  econom- 
ists deemed  him  a  'romantic'  Original  research  was 
taken  to  imply  measurement  and  numbering  of  'object- 
ive' things;  the  extensive  preliminary  requirements 
for  successful  advance  in  philosophy  were  not  provided 
or,  at  least,  not  emphasized  and,  as  is  altogether  likely, 
had  not  been  understood.  The  things  unseen  and 
eternal  seek  personalities  to  their  hire,  rather  than 
methods  and  machines;  hence  they  tend  to  prefer 
conditions  hard  to  meet.  In  any  case,  they  escape  the 
conventions,  and  especially  the  rapid  results,  possible 
with  things  seen  and  temporal.  The  danger  was  already 
afoot,  that  search,  the  routine  of  the  decent  fainulus, 
should  be  mistaken  for  research,  the  creation  of  a  real 
intellect,  thoroughly  alive.  Hence  the  expert,  whose 
instruments  record  the  movements  of  the  vocal  muscles 
of  the  performers  in  an  opera,  was  prompted  to  look 
with  more  or  less  disdain  upon  the  vian  who  had  devel- 


150 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


151 


oped  the  personal  insight  to  penetrate  the  spiritual 
value  of  the  work.*  Happily,  this  mood  of  confidence 
has  passed;  we  now  begin  to  suspect  that  'infusorial 
bubbles'  are— bubbles.  Ballast,  immensely  useful  in 
its  way,  cannot  be  called  cargo. 

Again,  the  internal  evidence  furnished  by  Oilman's 
Life  and  writings  serves  to  show  that,  alike  by  experience 
and  temperament,  he  was  antipathetic  to  the  Idealism 
for  which  Morris  now  stood.      From  the  outset  of  his 
career  he  had  been  interested  in  scientific  and  technical 
education  :t  he  occupied  the  professorship  of  Physical 
and    Political    Geography    in    the    Sheffield    Scientific 
School  of  Yale  University.J     He  soon  became  absorbed 
in  administrative  questions. §     He  was  "a  man  of  sur- 
passing talent  for  organization  .  .  .  of  incessant  industry 
and  persistent  acquirement,"||  without  a   trace  of   the 
thinker  in  the  philosophical   sense.     Expressions  used 
by  him  in  public  addressesif  and  his  policy  when  Johns 
Hopkins  was  founded,**  warrant  the  inference  that  he 
conceived  of  philosophy  as  ethics,  and  that  he  regarded 
it  primarily  as  a  collegiate  or  disciplinary,   not  as  a 
university  or  research  subject.     It  was  little  more  than 
an  advisable  or  'character-forming'  preliminary.     When 
he  surmounted  this  view,  it  was  to  emphasize  experi- 
mental psychology,tt  or  logic,  not  as  a  pure  science 

*Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall  pointed  this  out  many  years  ago;  cf.  Aspects 
of  German  Culture,  pp.  301  f. 

t  Of.  Life,  F.  Franklin,  p.  41. 

X  Ibid.,  pp.  57  f.,  73. 

§  Ibid.,  pp.  89  f.,  95  f.,  179  f.,  267  f. 

II  Ibid.,  pp.  180,  cf.  213. 

1  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Celebration  of  the  25th  Anniversary, 
p.  27;  University  Problems  in  the  United  States,  pp.  18,  21  {.,  58  f.,  213  f., 
273  f.,  296  f.,  217  f. 

**  Cf.  Life,  pp.  217  f.;  The  Launching  of  a  University,  pp.  52  f. 
ft  Twenty-fifth  Anniversary,  p.  31;  University  Problems,  pp.  59  I. 


however,  but  as  an  instrument  to  teach  the  physician 
how  to  reason!*  One  who  could  declare  so  late  as 
1885,  "I  do  not  know  whether  philosophy  is  *on  a  return 
to  Kant'  or  to  common  sense,"  could  hardlv  be  blamed 
if,  on  organizing  a  university,  he  permitted  the  whole 
of  philosophy — the  systematic  rethinking  of  universal 
first  principles — to  disappear  in  its  parts. f  His  stress 
is  invariably  upon  natural  science  and  philology.J 
*  Pedagogics '  he  could  descry,  with  an  eye  to  administ- 
ration; deduction  of  the  categories  left  him  helpless 
and,  perhaps,  as  a  citizen  "of  an  enlightened  Christian 
city,''§  suspicious. 

On  the  other  hand,  thanks  to  recent  intellectual 
experiences  with  Agnosticism,  Morris  was  in  strong 
reaction  against  the  'realistic'  tendencies  that  dominated 
the  university  alike  in  its  scientific  and  humanistic 
studies.  He  literally  abominated  the  current  'philo- 
sophy of  science  ' ;  and  the  young  lions  of  history,  politics 
and  economics,  who  followed  an  occasional  seminar 
with  him,  little  relished  his  undisguised  conviction  that 
their  pet  themes  were,  in  large  measure,  preliminary  to 
something  incomparably  more  significant — the  inter- 
pretation of  seminal  ideas  in  their  historical  manifest- 
ation. Thus,  like  his  namesake,  C.  D'U.  Morris, 
one  of  the  first  Johns  Hopkins  faculty,  who  taught 
college  classics  and  the  beggarly  elements  of  philosophy, 
"the  times  seemed  to  be  against  him."i|  Other  ideals 
and  interests  held  the  field,  and  attracted  the  administ- 

*  University  Problems,  p.  231. 

t  Cf.  Life,  pp.  215  f.;  University  Problems,  pp.  21  f. 
X  Cf.  The  Launching  of  a  University,  pp.  19,  218  f.,  243  f.;  Twenty-fifth 
Anniversary,  pp.  34  f.,  41  f.,  129  f. 
§  University  Problems,  p.  36. 
II  The  Launching  of  a  University,  p.  52. 


152 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


153 


rative  eye.  Such  sporadic  philosophy  as  there  was 
savoured  of  Xeo-Kantianism,*  and  of  this  phenomenon 
little  was  known  and  less  understood  technically  in 
Baltimore.  It  was  thus  almost  inevitable  that  the 
'research'  appeal  of  experimental  psychology,  and  the 
utilitarian  trend  of  'pedagogics'  should  supplant  the 
theoretical  interest  of  philosophical  Wissenschaft.  The 
paradox  is  that,  in  this  the  home,  as  all  conceived  it, 
of  pure  science,  the  purest  of  pure  sciences  could  not 
find  a  place  where  to  lay  its  head— and  this  without 
blameworthiness  on  the  part  of  any  one. 

Dr.  Benjamin  C.  Burt,  known  for  his  excellent  hist- 
ories of  philosophy,  favoured  me  in  his  last  daysf  with 
those  comments  upon  the  situation.  When  Morris 
was  at  Johns  Hopkins 

''The  general  atmosphere  did  not,  to  me,  seem  very  hospitable 
towards  philosophy.  The  'scientific'  spirit  was  too  strong. 
The  classes  in  philosophy  were  not  large  when  I  was  there,  in 
1880-81;  and,  in  fact,  the  departure  had  not  yet  been  fairly 
recognized.  Indeed,  I  doubt  if  philosophy  has  ever  obtained  a 
real  foothold  at  J.  H.  U.  to  this  day.J  However,  Professor 
Morris  had  admirers  and  friends  in  the  J.  H.  U.  faculty,  I  believe. 
He  certainly  was  fond  of  meeting  others  at  the  J.  H.  U.  Club, 
where  they  could  smoke  together,— he  was  no  prig,  gentle  and 
courteous  though  he  was  always." 

In  this  connection,  my  friend,  President  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  has  been  kind  enough  to  communicate  a  very 
frank  letter,  which  says  much,  and  intimates  more. 

"I  felt  a  great  and,  no  doubt,  extravagant,  affection  and 
admiration  for  him  [Morris].     I  remember  very  well,  in  a  board- 

*  As  was  shown  later  by  W.  K.  Brooks  in  his  The  Foundations  of 
Zoology. 

t  Dr.  Burt  died  in  January,  1915. 

t  Everyone  knows,  of  course,  that,  with  the  appointment  of  Professor 
Lovejoy,  this  reproach  was  removed  once  for  all. 


ing-house  in  New  York,  down  town  just  off  Broadway,  in  which 
a  very  famous  murder  had  once  been  committed,  I  saw  him  for 
weeks  at  another  table  and  looked  upon  him  with  reverence  and 
admiration.     He  had  just  got  home  from  Europe.     It  must 
have  been  about  1868  or  1869,  and  I  was  in  the  theological 
seminary.     I  looked  up  to  him  as  fulfilling  my  very  highest  ideal 
— a  man  who  had  been  abroad  and  knew  philosophy.     I  think 
our  acquaintance  then  was  limited  to  a  few  calls,  but  he  did 
loan  me  books  and  encourage  me.     I  think  he  was  then  resident 
tutor  in  the  family  of  Jesse  Seligman  in  Gramercy  Park,  19th 
Street,  and  was  spending  his  time  translating  Ueberweg  with  the 
very  utmost  care  and  sohcitousness  in  running  down  every 
reference.     Henry  B.  Smith  admired  him  very  greatly.    Later, 
when  he  was  called  to  Michigan,  he  did  me  a  very  great  kindness, 
in  getting  me  appointed  his  successor  at  the  Sehgman's.     I 
found  both  the  children  and  the  parents  had  the  very  highest 
admiration  and  regard  for  Morris.     Some  years  later,  when  I 
was  at  Antioch,  between  1872  and  1876, 1  made  a  visit  to  Mich- 
igan, saw  Morris  again,  and  he  and  Frieze  were  very  kind  to  me 
and  took  me  about.     I  had  never  realized  Morris's  musical 
ability.     Our  last  contact  was  along  in  the  very  early  eighties, 
when  we  were  both  lecturing  for  some  months  at  Johns  Hopkins, 
and  boarded  at  the  same  place.     Here  we  saw  far  more  of  each 
other  than  ever  before,  and  had  endless  talks.    He  had  developed 
a  good  ways  toward  the  Hegelian  position,  which  his  writings 
illustrated,  and  so  we  did  not  agree.     I  always  felt  that  his 
philosophical  opinions  were  so  much  a  part  and  an  expression 
of  his  personality,  that  one  could  hardly  differ  from  them  without 
danger  of  losing  a  little  of  the  warmth  of  his  friendship,  and  I 
always  felt  that  his  cordiality  toward  me,  although  he  did  not 
allow  it  to  lapse  consciously,  faded.     I  tliink  we  were  both  in  a 
sense  on  trial  for  a  chair  at  Hopkins;  and,  when  the  spirit  of  the 
university  decided  for  my  experimental  type,  instead  of  for  the 
history  of  philosophy,  I  always  felt  that  our  friendly  relations 
were  at  an  end. 

"  I  do  not  think  it  was  ever  my  privilege  to  know  a  man  to  illust- 
rate the  temper  of  a  true,  pure  scholar  more  than  Morris  did. 
He  was  so  gentle  and  inward  and  reserved,  that  I  always  felt  a 
great  deal  of  restraint  in  his  presence,  as  well  as  awe  for  his 


I    n 


I       a 


154 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


scholarship,  which  was  greatly  increased  when  I  saw  the  extent 
of  his  library  in  Michigan,  and  his  familiarity  with  it.  I  do  not 
beUeve  even  Morris,  with  all  his  friends,  ever  had  among  them 
one  who  looked  up  to  him  as  a  younger  man  to  an  older  with 
greater  reverence  and  admiration.  I  should  never  have  had 
my  years  of  enthusiasm  for  the  history  of  philosophy  but  for 
Morris  and,  though  I  went  in  another  direction  later,  there  are 
few  men  I  owe  more  to." 

All  these  considerations  serve  to  explain,  partly  at  all 
events,  President  Angell's  frequent  comment: 

"I  could  never  understand  why  Oilman  did  not  take  more 
pains  to  place  Philosophy  upon  a  footing  commensurate  with 
its  importance." 

The  truth  was  that,  like  other  men,  Oilman  suffered 
from  limitations,  and  had  been  caught  up  in  the  anti- 
philosophical  reaction  so  characteristic  of  the  second 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  did  not  understand 
that  the  principle  for  the  philosophy  of  the  future 

''has  been  found:  it  lies  in  that  organic  conception  of  the  Uni- 
verse which  has  its  foundation  in  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  which, 
continuing  from  them,  will  have  to  complete  itself  in  a  profounder 
examination  of  fundamental  ideas  and  through  an  interchange 
with  the  science  of  reality."* 

Nor  did  he  realize  that  the  methods  of  the  positive 
sciences  can  be  applied  to  but  few  philosophical  questions, 
and  these  chiefly  of  a  preliminary  order.f  He  could 
not  be  expected  to  see  that  ultimate  problems  often 
make  cowards  of  men,  leading  them  to  take  refuge  in  the 
outer  courts  of  the  temple  of  thought.  Nor  could  he 
foresee  that,  within  a  generation,  it  w^ould  be  conceded 
that  the  positive  sciences  have  little  or  nothing  to  say 
about   the   Real.     He   could   understand   'advance   in 

*  Logische  Untersuchungen,  F.  A.  Trendelenburg,  Preface  (2d  ed.). 
t  Cf .  A.  G.  Webster,  Science,  Vol.  XXXIX.  (new  series),  pp.  42  f. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


155 


knowledge'  by  the  laboratory  route;  he  could  lay  finger 
upon  the  applications  of  this  research  to  healing,  to 
commerce,  to  political  administration  perhaps,  and,  by 
consequence,  agree  that  contemporary  thought  had  won 
to  nothing  but  anarchy.  And,  in  an  age  when  a  Wundt 
could  declare,  Wir  sind  alle  Ejyigonen,  he  may  be  forgiven. 
As  we  shall  have  occasion  to  observe  later,*  Morris's 
mental  outlook  was  also  a  definite  factor  in  the  situation. 
He  could  make  no  concessions  to  the  rampant  spirit 
of  empiricism,  none  to  the  rising  realism  in  humanistic 
studies.     He,  too,  was  unable  to  transcend  his  time- 

Notwithstanding  the  "atmosphere"  and  the  "spirit 
of  the  university,"  however,  Morris  had  some  cause 
to  rest  satisfied  with  the  impression  he  produced. 
I  have  referred  already  to  the  quality  of  his  pupils. 
Looking  to  the  small  number  of  matriculants  at  Johns 
Hopkins,  the  quantity  need  not  have  disappointed  him, 
especially  after  the  time  mentioned  by  Dr.  Burt.  Ex- 
cluding public  lecture  courses,  the  number  of  students 
was  as  follows:  in  1880-1,  14;  in  1881-2,  22;  in  1882-3, 
47;  in  1883-4,  28;  and  in  1884-5,  44. 

Meanwhile,  on  24th  December,  1881,  Morris  returned 
to  Ann  Arbor  from  Baltimore,  to  assume  the  duties  of 
his  new  chair,  "a  matter  for  sincere  rejoicing,"  as  the 
student  newspaper  said.  Personal  contacts  alone  can 
suffice  to  convey  the  impression  which  he  made.  I  am 
exceptionally  fortunate,  therefore,  to  be  able  to  cite 
former  State  Senator  Andrew  Campbell,  a  Scot  cast 
in  the  Carlyle  mould, — a  thinker  by  grace  of  Nature, — 
who  has  been  in  the  habit  of  frequenting  our  philosophical 
class-rooms  for  more  than  half  a  century.  His  unique 
experience  runs  back  to  1861,  when  he  began  to  visit 

*  See  Chap.  viii. 


156 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


157 


Tappan's  classes.  Thereafter,  he  listened  to  Haven, 
and  to  Cocker,  whom  he  knew  intimately,  and  for  whom 
he  formed  an  attachment.  Later,  he  came  to  admire 
Morris,  whose  lectures  and  seminar  he  attended,  and 
with  whom  he  was  brought  into  close  contact  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Philosophical  Society.  He  has  been 
good  enough  to  set  down  his  recollections,  the  more 
valuable  that  they  come  from  one  unusually  qualified 
to  judge,  not  merely  on  a  basis  of  comparison  possessed 
by  no  one  else,  but  also  in  virtue  of  competent  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  and  a  mastering  intellectual  interest. 
Mr.  Campbell  writes: 

"Professor  Morris  had  a  profound  and  penetrative  insight 
into  the  real  problems  of  philosophy.  His  teaching  was  entirely 
different  from  that  either  of  Tappan  or  Cocker.  He  made  no 
appeal  to  authority,  but  aimed  to  develop  the  thought  contained 
in  the  system.  He  had  struggled  for — and  obtained — the 
'higher  vision,'  which  was  accompanied  by  a  rare  humility  on 
his  part,  and  helped  to  make  him  the  delightful  and  lovable  man 
he  was.  He  estabUshed  the  Philosophical  Seminary,  and  began 
with  the  Prolegomena  of  Kant,  read  in  the  German  text.  He 
brought  out  with  great  clearness  the  superiority  of  the  German 
language  over  the  English  for  the  expression  of  nice  distinctions 
in  philosophical  thought.  He  used  to  say  that  the  English 
philosophy  was  ''empirical  psychology."  The  pure  stream  of 
philosophy  flowed  from  the  Greeks  and  the  Germans.  He  was 
uninfluenced  by  the  "Back  to  Kant"  movement,  and  held 
strenuously  to  the  higher  idealistic  movement.  The  method 
and  quality  of  his  teaching  were  far  beyond  anything  heretofore 
done  in  the  University.  It  took  courage  and  decision  to  perse- 
vere. He  did  his  work  well,  and  it  may  be  said  of  him,  as  of  the 
blessed  dead,  that,  while  he  rests  from  his  labours,  his  works  do 
follow  him.  For  the  work  he  began  is  maintained  and  carried 
on  with  a  vigour  and  scope  that  would  have  been  a  source  of  great 
satisfaction  to  him,  could  he  have  lived  to  see  it.  In  fact,  the 
system  introduced  by  Morris  has  not  been  changed,  but  simply 
modified  and  enlarged." 


n 


As  Mr.  Campbell  indicates,  the  change  in  the  philo- 
sophical programme  was  immediate.  At  the  time  of 
Morris's  appointment,  philosophical  instruction  was 
alike  conventional  and  meagre:  one  term  of  General 
Psychology,  and  of  Ontology,  in  the  rationalistic  sense; 
one  term  of  Formal  Logic,  and  of  History  of  Philosophy. 
Morris,  feeling  his  way  at  the  outset,  offered  courses  in 
General  History  of  European  Philosophy,  Ethics — 
Historical  and  Theoretical — and  a  seminary  (Kant's 
Prolegomena).  The  following  year,  second  semester 
of  1882-83,  he  gave  History  of  the  Leading  Epochs  in 
European  Philosophy,  Political  Ethics,  and  a  seminary 
in  the  Science  of  Knowledge,  as  developed  in  Aristotle 
and  the  German  post-Kantians.  When  Dr.  Howison 
joined.  Real  Logic  and  History  of  Philosophy  in  Great 
Britain  were  added.  While,  on  the  appointment  of 
Professor  Dewey,  in  July,  1884,  the  thoroughly  articul- 
ated plan  of  work,  was  drawn,  which,  as  Mr.  Campbell 
acutely  points  out,  has  been  the  basis  of  all  we  have  \ 
done  ever  since. 

The  recollections  of  Dr.  Angell  and  others,  supported 
by  many  notices  or  hints  in  current  newspapers,  make 
it  plain  that,  during  this  second  period  of  service,  Morris 
not  only  played  a  much  more  prominent  part  in  the  * 
affairs  of  the  university  than  before,  but  had  also  over- 
come, in  large  measure,  his  former  aversion  to  public 
appearances.  We  find  him  at  work  as  an  examiner  of 
schools  under  the  diploma  system  of  entrance;  he  partici- 
pates in  the  social  affairs  of  the  community,  entertaining 
Canon  Farrar,  for  instance,  on  the  occasion  of  the  visit 
of  the  distinguished  English  preacher.  We  saw  that, 
in  the  nine  years  after  1874,  he  spoke  thrice  only.  I 
find  records  of  no  less  than  thirty  public  appearances 


158 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


after  1882  and,  doubtless,  the  list  is  incomplete.  This 
implies,  of  course,  that  he  had  laid  hold  upon  the  student 
body  and,  as  we  might  anticipate,  the  organs  of  under- 
graduate opinion  contain  several  pronouncements  to 
the  effect  that  he  was  the  most  popular  teacher  on  the 
staff.  Nor  was  this  the  issue  of  cheap  methods;  quite 
the  contrary.  Rather,  his  pupils  caught  from  Morris 
some  relish  of 

"those  first  affections, 
Those  Shadowy  recollections, 
Which,  be  they  what  they  may, 
Are  yet  the  fountain  light  of  all  our  day, 
Are  yet  a  master  light  of  all  our  seeing; 
Uphold  us,  cherish,  and  have  power  to  make 
Our  noisy  years  seem  moments  in  the  being 
Of  the  eternal  Silence.  .  .  . 

Hence  in  a  season  of  calm  weather 

Though  inland  far  we  be, 

Our  Souls  have  sight  of  that  immortal  sea 

Which  brought  us  hither." 

Young  and  inexperienced  though  they  were,  the 
occupants  of  the  bare  benches  in  the  gaunt,  low  room, 
felt  the  transfiguration  on  the  mount.  One  of  them,* 
exceptionally  well  fitted  to  judge,  says : 

''His  scholarship  was  unusual  for  a  professor  of  philosophy  in 
this  country  a  generation  ago;  and  many  a  secular  minded  or 
antagonistic  young  person,  who  more  or  less  resented  the  '  Christ- 
ian Spiritualism'  ...  in  the  professor  and  his  classes  (though 
never  in  the  professor's  own  central  moral  spirit),  was  distinctly 
reached  by  his  scholarship  and  scholar's  temper,  and  carried 
away,  for  life,  new  perceptions,  new  standards,  in  dealing  with 
truth.  .  .  .  When  the  appeal  of  his  subject  began  to  take  hold 
of  him  .  .  .  there  was  no  raising  of  the  voice  .  .  .  but  all  the 

*  Professor  George  Rebec  (University  of  Oregon),  Michigan  Alumnus, 
Vol.  XIV,  p.  189. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


159 


more  on  this  account,  the  speaker's  unwilled — sometimes  half- 
willing — intensity  and  persuasive  power  dominated  and  suffused 
the  class  till  its  mood  became  like  that  of  worship  in  a  church." 

At  the  same  time,  Morris  began  to  take  a  constant 
part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church.  Following  a  long  line 
of  his  predecessors  and  colleagues — Gunn,  Fasquelle, 
Frieze,  Douglas,  Palmer,  Denison,  Moses  Coit  Tyler, 
and  the  present  President  of  the  University — he  was 
elected  to  the  Vestry,  in  1882;  to  the  Senior  Wardenship, 
in  1883.  He  presided  at  the  organ  often,  read  part  of 
the  service  sometimes,  became  a  member  of  the  executive 
board  of  Harris  Hall,  the  students'  Guild  House,  and 
gave  freely  of  his  talents  to  the  courses  of  lectures 
delivered  there.  It  was  most  meet,  therefore,  that 
his  principal  memorial  should  have  been  placed  in 
St.  Andrew's  Church,  Ann  Arbor,  as  we  shall  see. 

When  Cocker  died,  in  1883,  Morris  was  still  under 
contract  with  Johns  Hopkins  for  the  first  half  of  each 
academic  year,  and  it  was  dubious  whether  Michigan 
could  command  his  entire  time  without  an  effort.  This 
unpropitious  fact  opened  the  way  for  other  possibilities. 
Even  more  unfortunate,  the  factional  disturbances  that 
rent  the  university  after  1875,  had  left  their  legacy. 
Some  members  of  the  governing  board  grew  accustomed 
to  approach  educational  questions  from  a  quite  irrelevant 
standpoint.  One  such — a  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
strange  to  relate — conceived  the  recondite  idea  that 
personal  friendship  with  himself  constituted  a  main 
qualification  for  the  vacancy.  He  proved  so  insistent 
that  his  nominee,  a  worthy  teacher  of  Greek  in  a  small 
denominational  college,  a  thoroughly  *safe'  person  whose 
achievements  in  philosophy  were  nil,  received  the  refusal 
of  the  post.     In  other  words,  this  adventitious  combina- 


160 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


tion  of  circumstances  nearly  resulted  in  humiliation. 
Morris  might  have  been  lost  to  Michigan  at  the  eleventh 
hour,  in  favor  of  a  man  who,  despite  his  fifty-three  years, 
had  the  naivete  to  tell  the  authorities  that  he  had  begun  at 
once  "a  most  earnest  preparation  for  the  duties  of  the 
Chair!"*  Luckily,  the  'deal'— it  merits  this  name,  I  take 
it — proved  to  be  impracticable  in  the  end,  much  to  the 
relief  of  the  President.  And  Frieze  who,  more  than  any 
one  else  except  Tappan,  had  built  himself  into  the 
university,  wrote  to  Morris: 

"When  the  opening  presented  itself  for  your  return  to  our 
faculty,  I  was  in  a  constant  tremor  for  fear  there  would  be  some 
insuperable  obstacle  in  the  way.  .  .  .  There  is  great  need  of 
more  men  of  middle  age,  of  mature  experience,  of  coolness  as  well 
as  tact  amidst  our  present  preponderance  of  young  men,  with 
the  Hability  every  now  and  then  to  impulsive  action." 

The  bucket  brigade,  which  is  always  alert  "  to  prevent 
the  flames  from  spreading  when  some  genius  kindles  a 
genuine  fire  of  truth  and  beauty,"  was  foiled  for  once. 

In  November,  1883,  Dr.  George  H.  Howison  who, 
later,  at  the  University  of  California,  became  one  of 
the  two  most  successful  teachers  of  philosophy  in  the 
United  States  during  the  last  generation,  was  called 
as  Morris's  associate.  It  may  be  added  at  this  point^ 
that  Dr.  Howison's  early  transfer  to  California  was 
followed  by  the  election  of  Dr.  John  Dewey;  and  that, 
when  he  went  to  the  University  of  Minnesota,  in  1888, 
Dr.  Williston  S.  Hough  replaced  him.  Cocker, 
Howison,  Dr.  Dewey,  and  Hough  were  thus  Morris's 
colleagues  during  the  seven  years  and  nine  months  of 
his  all  too  brief  occupancy  of  the  Michigan  chair  of 
philosophy. 

*  Proc.  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University  of  Michigan  (1881-6), 
p.  429:  cf.  p.  371. 


^ 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


161 


We  have  seen  that  Morris  had  renounced  allegiance 
to  the  dynasty  of  ideas  that  ruled  him  in  youth,  and 
that,  as  a  result,  he  was  suspect  with  those  who  remained 
content  with  the  traditional,  or  cataclysmic,  view  of 
human  experience.  The  incident  which  we  are  to  note 
next,  although  quite  devoid  of  importance  in  itself, 
serves  to  illustrate  another  difficulty,  troublesome  to 
fundamental  thinkers  a  generation  ago.  Darwin — to 
substitute  a  name  for  a  movement — had  applied  the 
idea  of  Development  in  a  particular  field.  Now,  as 
Dr.  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn  says, 

''The  discovery  of  a  great  truth  ...  is  always  followed  by 
an  over-valuation,  from  which  there  is  certain  to  be  a  reaction 
when  there  comes  a  fresh  adjustment  of  scientific  values."* 


•     •     • 


Morris  did  not  live  to  see  the  'reaction'  against  a 
partial  explanation;  his  lot  was  cast  when  the  ^over- 
valuation' ran  to  extremes.  As  in  philosophic  duty 
bound,  he  protested  against  it.  He  had  therefore  to 
suffer  obloquy  from  the  young  lions  of  the  'new  scien- 
tific' philosophy,  no  less  than  from  the  old  Giant  Popes 
of  Protestant  dogmatism.  In  his  crabbed  way,  Carlyle 
took  the  point  well: 

"Nature  in  late  centuries  was  irreverently  supposed  to  be 
dead,  an  old  eight-day  clock  made  many  thousand  years  ago,  and 
still  ticking  on,  but  as  dead  as  brass,  which  the  Maker  at  most 
sat  looking  at,  in  a  distant,  singular,  and  now  plainly  indeed, 
incredible  manner.  But  now,  I  am  happy  to  observe,  she  is 
everywhere  asserting  herself  not  to  be  dead  brass  at  all,  but  alive 
and  miraculous,  celestial-infernal,  with  an  emphasis  that  will 
again  penetrate  the  thickest  head  in  the  planet  by-and-by." 

Morris  would  have  none  either  of  the  irreverence  or 
of  the  infernal.     He  knew  freedom,  not  as  a  capricious 

*  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  LXXXIII,  p.  535. 
12 


162 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


privilege  of  intellect,  but  as  a  tremendous  duty  to  man's 
tvhole  experience — at  once  natural  and  spiritual.  In 
short,  he  was  under  bonds  to  bare  the  superstitions  of 
naturalistic  scepticism  no  less  than  those  of  supranat- 
uralistic  convention.     Hence  our  episode. 

"The  secular  minded  or  antagonistic  young  person," 
of  whom  we  heard  a  moment  ago,  could  not  be  expected 
to  hide  his  light  under  a  bushel.     Naturally  enough, 
it  is  from  him  that  the  single  recorded  attack  upon 
Morris— if,    indeed,    it    merit   this  dignity,— emanates; 
a  disagreeable  contrast  to  the  spirit  of  affection  mingled 
with  reverence  that  pervades  all  other  utterances.     The 
time  was  February,  1884,  when,  with  the  final  appoint- 
ment to  the  vacant  chair  of  Philosophy  still  pending, 
it  seemed  plain  that  Tvlorris  must  be  chosen.     The  ground 
of  criticism  reflected  the  callow  Aufkldnmg  fashionable 
then   with   some   undergraduates,   whose   thinking   lay 
altogether  ahead.     Indeed,  it  was  a  survival  of  eight- 
eenth   century    JVeltweisheit    which,    thanks    in    large 
measure    to    their    preoccupation     with     middle-class 
politics  and  commerce,  continued  to  pass  for  philosophy 
among  the  English-speaking  peoples,  for  nigh  a  century 
'  after  the  Critique  of  Pure  Reason*    The  valiant  spokes- 
man charged,  briefly,  that  Morris  and  Howison  were 
"totally  out  of  sympathy  with  that  thought  which  is 
admitted  to  be  most  characteristic  of  our  own  race  and 
time";t  and,  at  much  greater  length,  that  their  political 
teaching    was    "fundamentally    opposed    to    the    spirit 
of  our  own  institutions  as  well  as  of  every  other  good 
government."t     The  eagle   screams  here,   striking  the 


*  Cf.  My  Kant  and  His  Philosophical  Revolution,  Part   I,  Chap.  ii. 
t  Chronicle,  Vol.  XV.,  p.  150.     Just  this  view  had  much  to  do  with 
the  Johns  Hopkins  affair. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  151. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


163 


note  that  was  to  dominate  the  symphony  of  Mc- 
Kinleyism.  Of  course,  as  was  inevitable,  the  writer 
betrayed  his  ignorance  when  he  came  to  cite  authorities: 
"Wm.  M.  Evarts,  Professor  Sumner,  and  Henry  Ward 
Beecher;  as  well  as  President  Barnard,  of  Columbia 
College. *'*  A  marvellous  quartette  in  the  gallery  of 
great  philosophers,  one  might  add!  No  wonder  that  a 
somewhat  crushing  rejoinder  said: 

"He  has  the  simplicity  to  support  his  plea  by  authority  of 
H.  W.  Beecher  and  President  Barnard.  Did  he  ever  hear  of 
idola  theatri?  But  we  are  tired  of  such  nonsense.  If  any  one 
desires  ...  to  fit  himself  to  write  further  charges  with  credit 
to  himself,  let  him  take  the  courses  of  Philosophy  offered  in  the 
University,  wherein  he  will  hear  what  of  truth,  not  only  Kant 
and  Hegel,  but  Mill  and  Spencer  have  to  offer,  "f 

Morris's  critic  thereupon  falls  back  upon  another 
display  of  ludicrous  naivete,  objecting  that  "  the  profess- 
ors .  .  .  come  to  very  different  conclusions  from  those 
of  G.  H.  Lewes,  in  his  history  of  philosophy. "J  Lewes 
as  the  standard  authority  on  history  of  philosophy,  in 
the  year  of  grace  1884,  is  indeed  food  for  immortal 
laughter!  Dr.  Angell  told  me  that  the  incident  caused 
some  amusement,  at  the  expense  of  the  writer;  and 
an  alumnus  who  belongs  to  this  period,  writes,  "I 
doubt  if  students  in  general  took  much  interest  in  the 
matter."  Nevertheless,  it  intimates  something  as  a 
symptom.  For,  as  my  correspondent  adds,  the  critic 
"was  the  most  aggressive  of  a  group  of  men  who  took 
pride  in  advanced  ideas  on  philosophy,  politics  and 
religion,  and  were  ardent  followers  of  Herbert  Spencer." 

*  Chronicle,  Vol.  XV.,  p.  151. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  190. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  210. 


164 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


In  short,  it  serves  to  prove  that  Morris  had  a  real  work 
to  do.  The  belle  lettrist  amateurism  of  John  Gibson 
Lockhart,  all  very  well  in  the  salad  days  of  The  Quarterly 
Review,  had  migrated  overseas,  to  masquerade  as  dogma. 
"What!"  Lockhart  said,  speaking  of  the  whole  move- 
ment central  in  Goethe,  "would  you  introduce  that 
d— d  nonsense  into  this  country?"  It  remained  for 
Morris  to  teach  that  the  intellectual  parvenu  and  the 
sinner  stand  in  identical  case;  both  must  be  born  again. 
And  many  such  as  Morris  are  needed,  even  at  this  good 
hour,  to  assist  the  new  birth. 

On  8th  March,  1884,  in  the  historic  philosophical 
class-room,*  before  an  audience  "of  about  150,"t  Morris 
read  a  paper  on  "  The  University  Idea  and  the  Relation 
of  Philosophy  to  the  University."     When  he  concluded, 

''Prof.  Payne  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  a  motion  was  made 
and  carried  to  organize  a  philosophical  society  for  the  discussion, 
investigation  and  study  of  philosophical  subjects,  and  for  the 
purpose  of  increasing  the  interest  in  this  important  study  at  the 
University.  A  committee  consisting  of  Prof.  Morris  as  chairman, 
and  IVlessrs.  Jerome,t  Buckley,§  Haff||  and  Miss  CaseH  was  ap- 
pointed to  draw  up  a  constitution  and  report  it  at  an  early  date. 
Remarks  were  made  by  Dr.  Angell  upon  the  importance  and 
influence  of  such  societies.  There  is  much  enthusiasm  in  the 
matter  among  the  students  of  philosophy."** 

As  long  as  he  lived,  Morris  was  the  moving  spirit  in 
the   Society,    which    accomplished   much   to    stimulate 

♦  'Old'  21,  University  Hall,  now,  alas,  205  North  Wing! 
t  Chronicle,  Vol.  XV.,  p.  207. 

X  Afterwards  an  authority  on  the  causes  of  the  Decline  of  the  Roman 
Empire;  author  of  Roman  Memories,  etc. 

§  Afterwards  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Doshisha  College,  Japan. 
II  Now  an  eminent  lawyer  in  Kansas  City;  hon.  A.M.,  1909. 
^  Afterwards  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Wellesley  College. 
**  Chronicle,  Vol.  XV.,  p.  207. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


165 


philosophical  study  at  the  university.  It  was  no  incon- 
siderable service.  For,  reorganized  since  as  an  'honour* 
society,  the  association  continues  to  sustain  a  vigorous 
activity,  notwithstanding  the  enormous  change  in 
academic  conditions. 

Leaving  Quebec  on  13th  June,  1885,  Morris  made  his 
last  visit  to  Europe,  in  company  with  his  pupil  and  friend, 
Dr.  Charles  M.  Gayley,  now  of  the  University  of  Cal- 
ifornia. A  most  interesting  "Diary"  is  available. 
Moses  Coit  Tyler,  then  at  Cornell,  an  intimate  of  both, 
sent  the  'vagrant'  couple  this  amusing  communication, 
of  date  27th  June: — 

''To  THE  Chief  of  Police, 

Hollymount,  Co.  Mayo, 
Ireland. 
Sir:  I  hereby  notify  you  of  the  escape  from  this  country  of 
two  desperados,  and  of  the  probability  of  their  early  appearance 
within  your  jurisdiction.  They  have  been  recently  incarcerated 
at  Ann  Arbor,  Micliigan;  and  were  last  heard  from  at  Quebec, 
where,  on  the  point  of  saiUng,  they  seem  to  have  got  very  drunk, 
and  to  have  amused  themselves  by  breathing  out  profanity  and 
violence  against  their  betters.  It  would  be  impossible  for  them 
to  find  any  one  worse  than  themselves.  They  have  numerous 
ahases,  and  no  name  can  identify  them.  One  has  the  lean  wild 
look  of  a  metaphysician;  the  other,  the  hang-dog  expression  of  a 
poet  who  is  conscious  of  having  written  such  bad  verses  as  to 
entitle  himself  to  be  damned  like  his  poetry.  Both  are  dangerous 
characters;  and  constantly  explode,  though  not  with  dynamite. 
Look  out  for  them." 


Fog  and  icebergs — "  like  castles  of  the  New  Jerusalem  " 
— delaved  the  Sardinian,  and  the  travellers  did  not 
find  themselves  in  Londonderry  till  one  a.  m.  on  the 
23d.  After  exploration  of  the  adjacent  country,  in- 
cluding "a  reputed  site  of  Irish  kings  of  the  time  of 


166 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


Solomon,"  they  betook  themselves  East  to  the  Giant's 
Causeway,  thence  to  the  county  of  Captain  Boycott, 
where  their  host  had  been  under  police  protection  from 
the  Land-Leaguers,  and  so  to  Dublin.  At  Trinity 
College,  Morris  "sought  in  vain  IVIahaffy,  Abbott  and 
Dowden,"  but  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Professor 
Tyrrell,  and  of  chancing  upon  Professor  Corson,  of 
Cornell.  On  July  9th  he  arrived  in  Glasgow—"  a  great 
contrast  to  Ireland.  Ireland  seems  dead,  the  people 
slow,  lifeless,  and  disappointed;  Scotland— thrift,  energy, 
well-to-do,  wealth;  much  the  same  contrast  as  between 
Mississippi  and  New  England,  I  should  suppose." 
Naturally,  the  "beautiful  situation"  of  the  University 
buildings  impressed  him.  The  usual  round  of  'Rob 
Roy's  country'  followed,  and  brought  him  to  Crieff, 
where  he  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Principal  John 
Caird.  They  seem  to  have  had  a  most  illuminating 
discussion  of  philosophy  and  philosophers.  Morris 
records  Caird's  account  of  Thomas  Hill  Green:  "Most 
remarkable.  Impersonation  of  self-sacrifice,  always  the 
one  to  respond  to  the  call  of  distress  and  want."*  Ar- 
rived at  Edinburgh,  Morris  saw  Calderwood,  Flint  and 
A.  C.  Eraser,  and  heard  Professor  Andrew  Seth  lecture 
on  "Scottish  and  German  philosophy  admirably." 
He  learned  that  "one  or  both  of  the  Haldanes  were 
likely  to  go  into  Parliament.  This  most  encouraging 
for  the  future  of  politics,  on  account  of  their  brightness 
and  their  strength  in  political  philosophy."!  Very 
characteristically,  Flint  told  him  that  "they  had  not 
yet  got  much  beyond  the  old  style  of  teaching  at  Edin- 

♦Cf.   Works  of  Thomas  Hill  Green,  Vol.   III.;  the  "Memoir,"   by 
R.  L.  Nettleship. 

t  The  career  of  Lord  Haldane  fully  justifies  this  prediction. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


167 


burgh  in  philosophy.  No  history  of  philosophy.  The 
notion  of  history  of  philosophy  as  a  growth  only  begin- 
ning at  most,  to  germinate." 

From  Edinburgh  Morris  went  to  Bradford,  for  the 
express  purpose  of  seeing  Professor  A.  M.  Fairbairn, 
with  whom  he  spent  a  day;  thence  to  Manchester,  where 
he  was  greatly  vexed  to  find  that  Professor  Robert 
Adamson  was  in  Ireland,  on  holiday.  Luckily,  Pro- 
fessor Edward  Caird  was  nearby,  in  North  Wales,  and 
Morris  had  a  couple  of  days  with  him  at  Bangor,  where 
he  also  met  Mr.  (now  Sir)  Henry  Jones— "a  bright 
fellow."  Morris  notes  a  "distinct  direction  of  Green 
and  Caird,  and  their  men,  to  practical  and  social  life."* 
From  Wales  he  journeyed,  through  the  Shakespeare 
country,  to  Oxford,  w^here  he  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  F.  H. 
Bradley,  at  Merton  College.  He  saw  something  of 
Green's  successor.  Professor  William  Wallace,  and  was 
surprised  to  learn  from  him  that  "teachers  of  philosophy 
in  Britain  see  very  little  of  each  other,"  also  to  hear  that 
Professor  Croom  Robertson  had  enough  ado  to  keep 
Mind  going.  He  was  evidently  struck  by  the  Oxford 
plan  of  philosophical  study,  and  comments: 

''The  statutes  require  here  philosophy  to  be  founded  on  Plato 
and  Aristotle.  So,  every  candidate  for  a  degree  [he  should 
have  said,  an  honour  degree]  inust  know  much  Greek,  and  be  able 
to  read  the  Greek  philosophers  and  historians  in  Greek.  Modern 
philosophy,  the  statutes  say,  may  be  read— not  must.  To  make 
much  of  it,  it  has  to  be  brought  in  by  way  of,  or  as  an  appendage 
to,  Greek  philosophy.  Not  precisely  so:  there  is  a  paper  re- 
quired in  Logic  and  Modern  Philosophy,  in  which  much  Modern 
Philosophy  may  be  brought  in  and,  in  one  course,  portions  of 

*  Cf.  My  articles,  Some  Lights  on  the  British  Idealistic  Movement  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century  (The  American  Journal  of  Theology,  July,  1901), 
and  Edward  Caird  (The  Harvard  Theological  Review,   April,  1909). 


168 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


Kant's  Kritik  may  be  read.  But,  certainly,  one  must  know  the 
Greek  authors  and,  especially,  much  of  Aristotle's  Ethics.  So 
F.  H.  Bradley  says." 

He  discovers  that  "books  on  Moral  Philosophy  sell 
best.  Bradley's  Ethical  Studies  was  all  sold  in  four 
years.  His  Logic,  and  Wallace's  Logic  of  Hegel,  go 
more  slowly."  Having  seen  the  sights,  and  called  upon 
Professor  Samuel  Alexander  (now^  of  the  University  of 
Manchester),  Professor  J.  Cook  Wilson  (d.  1915),  and 
Mr.  W\  L.  Courtney  (now  editor  of  The  Fortnightly 
Revieiv),  Morris  left  for  London,  where  he  immediately 
repaired  to  Covent  Garden,  and  heard  Patti,  as  Mar- 
guerite, in  Gounod's  Faust.  He  was  disappointed  to 
miss  Professor  George  Croom  Robertson,  who  was  out 
of  town,  and  Mr.  Phelps,  the  American  Minister. 

Leaving  Queenboro'  for  Flushing,  he  arrived  at 
Cologne  on  July  23d,  whence  he  went  to  Bonn,  where 
he  spent  an  evening  with  Professor  J.  Bona  Meyer  and 
was  soon  on  familiar  ground,  in  Halle,  despite  the  lapse 
of  seventeen  years.  Here  he  heard  the  venerable  J.  E. 
Erdmann  lecture  on  Fichte,  Schelling  and  Hegel;  met 
his  future  colleague,  Dr.  Hough,  and  saw  his  old  friend, 
Professor  Lphues.  He  also  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Professor  Vaihinger,  who  "talked  at  lightning  speed," 
and  told  him  that  "^Esthetics  is  rarely  taken  up  at  the 
German  universities  comparatively.  The  Philosophen 
also  give,  as  a  rule,  no  attention  to  Religions-philosophie. 
Ethics  is  lectured  on  by  almost  everybody,  in  contrast 
to  the  state  of  things  a  few  years  ago."  In  short, 
Morris  found  himself  midmost  the  full  tide  of  the  Xeo- 
Kantian  and  Ritschlian  reaction, — the  "attempt  to 
combine  theoretical  scepticism  with  religious  mystic- 
ism," as  Dr.  Karl  Uphues  put  it.      Acccompanied  by 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


169 


Dr.  Hough,  Morris  then  repaired  to  Leipzig,  where  he 
met  Professors  Wundt  and  Heinze.  He  found  that 
fifty-nine  Americans,  five  Canadians,  and  nine  English — 
mostly  Scots! — were  pursuing  studies  in  the  University. 
He  heard  Wundt  lecture  on  Logic  and,  having  tried  to 
persuade  him  to  make  a  visit  to  the  United  States, 
received  'no'  for  an  answer.  Wundt  pled  in  exten- 
uation lack  of  time,  and  a  limited  knowledge  of  the 
English  language. 

The  next  move  was  to  Berlin,  w^here  "  I  was  addressed 
in  the  National  Gallerv  bv  Miss  Leach,  of  Vassar  Col- 
lege,  whom  I  met  in  Baltimore."  Morris  saw  the  aged 
Zeller,  but  had  the  bad  luck  to  miss  Paulsen,  who  was 
beginning  to  attract  attention  as  a  lecturer  just  then. 
He  had  an  interesting  visit  w^ith  Professor  Otto  Pfleid- 
erer,  at  Charlottenburg,  who  "complained  of  the 
clique-iness  from  which  he  thought  perhaps  Dr.  Adolf 
Lasson  had  suffered.  It  might  be  the  reason  of  his  not 
being  a  full  professor."  Thereafter,  he  saw  Lasson, 
who  "agreed  that  an  end  to  the  present  prevailing 
Kantian  agnosticism,  and  the  recognition  of  Hegel, 
would  have  to  come."*  After  a  brief  stay  at  Dresden, 
Morris  returned  to  Halle  whence,  after  seeing  something 
more  of  Erdmann  and  Uphues,  he  proceeded  to  Heidel- 
berg, to  call  for  Professor  Kuno  Fischer,  whom  he  found 
"very  friendly."  Fischer  maintained  that,  "while 
there  w^as  no  school  of  Hegelians,  bound  to  defend  the 
system  as  Hegel  left  it,  the  world  was  coming,  and  must 
come,  to  recognize  the  truth  in  him."  "He  was  in- 
terested," Morris  continues,  "in  my  account  of  the 
revival  of  philosophy  at  Oxford,  and  in  learning  how 

*  Dr.  Lasson,  still  drawing  crowds  at  Berlin  till  the  Great  War,  lived 
to  see  the  fulfilment  of  his  prediction. 


170 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


many   hearers   Wallace    had   had"    [as    many   as   one 

hundred]. 

From  Heidelberg  he  travelled  rapidly,  via  Strassburg 
and  Basel,  to  Lausanne,  where  he  had  a  joyful  reunion 
with  his  old  friends,  the  Joels,  among  whom  he  spent 
ten  days  in  delightful  recreation.  On  August  24th  he 
was  in  Paris;  next  day,  in  London,  en  route  for  Liverpool, 
where  he  was  again  disappointed  to  find  Professors 
A.  C.  Bradley  and  John  MacCunn  absent  on  vacation. 
He  was  greatly— and  justly— impressed  by  the  general 
excellence  of  the  collection  of  pictures  in  the  Walker 
Gallery.  On  the  27th,  he  sailed,  aboard  the  Circassian, 
and  arrived  at  Quebec  on  September  6th. 

This  tour  was  a  source  of  keen  pleasure  and  strong 
stimulus  to  Morris.  He  gave  an  account  to  the  Philo- 
sophical Society*  of  the  thinkers  whom  he  had  met  and, 
as  a  tangible  result,  procured  the  reproduction  of  Sir 
George  Reid's  portrait  of  Edward  Caird,  which  still 
hangs  in  the  philosophical  class-room.  He  frequently 
reverted  to  those  inspiring  meetings,  when  in  reminiscent 
mood.  His  hosts,  too,  remembered  their  gentle  and 
scholarly  guest  with  delight;  the  brothers  Caird,  Wallace, 
Fairbairn,  Flint  and  Pfleiderer  have  all,  at  one  time  or 
another,  spoken  to  me  about  the  visit;  the  Cairds  and 
Flint,  in  particular,  referred  to  it  often. 

Immediately  after  Morris  took  ship  for  Europe,  his 
colleague.  Professor  Charles  Kendall  Adams,  had  been 
elected  President  of  Cornell  University,  and  had  gone 
into  harness  on  1st  August,  1885.  The  following  are 
excerpts  from  one  of  his  earliest  official  letters: 

"Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  15,  1885. 
"My  dear  Morris:  I  have  not  heard  a  word  from  you  since 
you  took  ship  and  left  the  country  for  your  owti  good,  though  I 

*  Cf.  Michigan  Argonaut,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  134,  140. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


171 


have  been  for  some  weeks  hoping  that  I  should  hear  from  you. 
Before  this  reaches  you,  perhaps  your  good  wife  or  some  other 
good  person  will  have  informed  you  that  my  destinies  have  been 
transferred  from  Michigan  to  New  York.  ... 

"President  White's  term  of  office  according  to  the  record 
extends  to  the  First  of  September,  but  he  was  especially  anxious 
to  be  relieved  and  therefore,  at  his  request,  my  own  commission 
went  into  effect  on  the  First  of  August.  I  arrived  here  on  the 
morning  of  that  day,  and  since  that  time  I  have  been  sailing 
about  on  what  may  fairly  be  called  'a  voyage  of  discovery.'  .  .  . 

"Among  the  matters  now  receiving  my  earnest  thought  is  one 
about  which  I  desire  particularly  to  consult  you.  This  is,  you 
'will  not  be  surprised  to  learn,  concerning  the  matter  of  a  pro- 
fessor of  philosophy  and  Christian  ethics.  I  have  read  and 
re-read  all  the  correspondence  on  the  subject  turned  over  to  me 
by  President  White.  We  are  ready  to  make  the  appointment, 
and  should  make  it  at  once,  with  the  hope  that  the  new  incumbent 
would  enter  upon  his  duties  at  the  beginning  of  the  coming  year, 
if  we  could  only  satisfy  ourselves  in  regard  to  the  man.  ...  I 
want  such  advice  as  you  alone  among  my  acquaintances  can 

give.  .  .  . 

"Now,  what  I  propose  is  this:  that  on  your  arrival  in  New 
York,  when  you  are  ready  to  start  for  home,  you  take  the  Lehigh 
Valley  Railroad  and  stop  over  one  day  in  Ithaca.  ...  Of 
course,  I  am  reluctant  to  keep  you  for  a  single  hour  from  your 
wife  and  children  after  you  arrive  here.  ...  But  I  really  need 
your  advice,  and  I  hope  you  will  take  a  little  trouble  to  sacrifice 
so  much  to  our  old  friendship. 

"Very  heartily  and  affectionately  yours, 

"C.K.Adams." 


There  is  no  record  of  this  proposed  visit;  but  Morris 
did  submit  names  to  President  Adams  who,  after  in- 
vestigation, wrote  to  him,  on  12th  November,  1885, 
as  follows: — 

"My  interviews  gave  me  no  reason  for  changing  the  view  I  had 
previously  held.  I  have  seen  Mr.  Sage  since  my  return  and, 
consequently,  am  ready  to  take  up  the  matter  at  close  quarters. 


172 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


I  am  satisfied  that  you  are  the  man  for  the  place  and  that,  if  you 
will  authorize  us  to  go  on,  we  shall  elect  you  on  Friday  of  next 
week.  ...  I  believe  that,  with  the  beginning  of  a  new  year,  and 
the  courses  of  study  reorganized,  you  will  find  a  good  opportunity 
for  such  work  as  you  desire  to  do.  Hoping  that  you  will  decide 
to  come  and  that  your  coming  will  be  divinely  directed  for  good, 
I  am,  my  dear  fellow,  very  affectionately  yours, 

''C.K.Adams." 

Moses  Coit  Tyler,  a  '  powerful  persuader '  with  Morris, 
exerted  his  blandishments: — 

''Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  13  Nov.,  1885. 

"My  dear  Morris:  I  have  just  had  a  long  talk  with  Adams 

about  you,  and  I  feel  that  you  are  the  Providential  man  for 

this  great  place  which  opens  to  you.     I  do  hope  and  pray  that 

you  and  your  dear  \\ife  will  see  that  it  is  best  for  you  to  come. 

I  would  not  press  upon  you  undue  solicitations:  but  let  me  say 

this.     If  you  are  wiUing  ever  to  make  one  more  change  in  life, 

is  not  this  the  best  time  for  it;  and  could  it  be  made  under  more 

favorable  circumstances,  or  with  a  richer  promise  of  usefulness? 

This  is  certainly  to  be  a  great  seat  and  centre  of  intellectual 

influence. 

"Affectionately, 

"M.  C.  Tyler." 

*  Two  days  later,  Tyler  returned  to  the  charge,  with  the 
important  news  that  Mr.  Sage  had  decided  to  increase 
the  inducements,  and  concluded:  "If  you  say— 'yes'— 
sav  it  at  once:  if  'no' — don't  say  it  at  all!" 

The  charm  of  the  community-life  in  Ann  Arbor — so 
well  known  to  us  all — which,  as  is  often  said,  turns 
'outlanders'  into  better  Michigan  men  than  Michigan 
men  themselves,  had  laid  its  spell  upon  Morris.  And, 
ere  long,  his  resolve  to  decline  the  Cornell  offer  became 
public.     "The  decision  caused  great  rejoicing."*     Well, 

*  Cf.  Michigan  Argonaut,  Vol.  III.,  p.  65. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


173 


indeed,  it  was  for  Michigan.  But,  in  view  of  the  cir- 
cumstances w^hich  resulted  in  his  death,  one  can  scarce 
refrain  from  surmising  what  might  have  been,  had 
Morris  gone  to  Ithaca  and,  reaching  the  three-score 
years  and  ten,  administered  the  Sage  Foundation.  It 
is  perfectly  obvious  that  the  fortunes  of  several  individ- 
uals would  have  been  altered  profoundly;  and  that, 
possibly,  the  history  of  academic  philosophy  in  the 
United  States  w^ould  have  taken  a  somewhat  different 

course. 

In  the  four  years  that  still  remained  to  him,  ]Morris 
was  engaged  busily  in  consolidation  of  the  work  of  his 
Department,  growing  steadily  the  while  in  general  in- 
fluence and,  no  less,  in  the  respect  and  affection  of  the 
immediate  community.  He  met  the  common  lot  in 
the  w^ay  of  joy  and  sorrow\  Writing,  at  Christmas, 
1886,  to  his  Lausanne  friends,  he  says: 

"  We  all  spent  about  ten  weeks  in  the  East,  mainly  in  Vermont, 
during  the  summer,  enjoying  it  extremely.  One  of  the  pleas- 
antest  things  in  our  vacation  was  a  carriage  trip  of  nearly  200 
miles  across  the  Green  Mountains,  and  back  to  our  starting- 
point.  It  was  lovely.  We  have  since  thought  it  very  provid- 
ential that  we  spent  a  large  part  of  the  summer  with  my  father, 
for  only  a  few  weeks  after  our  return  to  Ann  Arbor  he  died, 
rather  suddenly.  He  was  almost  89  years  old,  and  during  the 
summer  he  was  in  very  good  health." 

In  1886,  he  projected  and  published  the  University 
of  Michigan  Philosophical  Papers,  contributing  the 
first  number,  University  Education,  and  editing  later 
issues,  by  Professors  Calvin  Thomas,  W.  H.  Payne, 
B.  C.  Burt  and  Henry  Sewell.  In  1887,  he  published 
his  last  work,  HegeVs  Philosophy  of  the  State  and  of 
History,    in    his    own    series    of    German    Philosophical 


174 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


Classics.     In  the  last  Christmas  letter  that  we  possess, 
to  his  Lausanne  friends,  the  Joels  (1888),  he  says: 

''Our  University  is  very  prosperous.  The  attendance  here  is 
larger  than  at  any  other  American  University.  We  have  over 
1800  students.  Of  course,  I  am  still  enjoying  my  work.  I  am 
very  busy  getting  ready  to  write  a  book  on  the  History  of  Logical 
Doctrine,  to  be  pubhshed  in  London  and  New  York.  It  will 
take  me  at  least  a  couple  of  years  to  get  it  completed." 

The  reference  is  to  his  contract,  which  lies  before  me, 
with  Messrs.  Swan,  Sonnenschein  and  Co.,  of  London, 
to  contribute  a  book  on  Logic  to  The  Library  of  Philo- 
sophy, then,  as  now,  under  the  editorship  of  my  former 
class-mate.  Professor  J.  H.  Muirhead,  of  the  University 
of  Birmingham.  Morris  had  made  many  notes,  which 
are  preserved,  but  had  written  nothing  ere  his  death. 
It  is  pathetic  to  note  that,  of  the  works  promised  in  the 
first  announcement  of  this  invaluable  Series,  no  less 
than  six  were  interrupted  by  death — those  of  Morris, 
W.  Wallace,  Ritchie,  Adamson,  E.  Caird,  and  Hough. 

Morris  appeared  occasionally  as  a  lecturer  at  other 
places,  notably  at  the  Concord  Summer  School  of 
Philosophy,  where  we  find  him  associated  with  many 
important  names;  and  at  Trinity  College,  Toronto, 
whqre  he  delighted  to  be  the  guest  of  the  late  Professor 
William  Clark,  a  winsome  personality,  a  link  with  the 
days  when  Mansel  was  just  beginning  to  exert  sway  at 
Oxford.  Last  year,  I  chanced  to  recover  an  interesting 
echo  from  one  of  these  Canadian  visits.  Morris  wished 
to  walk  and,  Clark  being  busy,  Mr.  Herbert  Symonds 
(now  Vicar  of  Christ  Church  Cathedral,  Montreal)  was 
told  off  to  accompany  him.  Dr.  Symonds  informs  me 
that,  in  the  course  of  their  tramp,  Morris  exclaimed: 
"I  wish  I  had  two  lives,  one  to  devote  to  Philosophy, 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


175 


the  other  to  Theology!"  This  remark,  made  in  1888, 
is  worth  noting  in  connection  with  the  letter,  written  in 
1882,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Class  of  1867  in  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  where  ]Morris  says: 

"My  connection  with  the  Class  was  severed  just  at  the  middle 
of  the  course,  and  the  study  of  theology  has  never  been  renewed 
by  me."* 

Without  doubt,  his  excursions  into  the  realm  of 
Philosophy  of  Religion  had  led  him  to  regret  that  he 
possessed  no  greater  familiarity  with  technical  theology. 

His  last  public  appearance  was  peculiarly  appropriate. 
It  took  place  on  15th  November,  1888,  when  he  read  a 
paper  on  "The  Greek  Philosophy  of  Music"  before  the 
University  Musical  Society,  now,  thanks  to  his  labours, 
and  to  those  of  Frieze  especially,  one  of  the  most  potent 
influences  for  the  elevation  of  life  in  our  midst. 

The  end  overtook  him,  as  well  as  his  nearest  and  dear- 
est, unexpectedly;  and  it  were  wiser  not  to  draw  the 
veil  which  shrouds  the  pitiful  and  tragic  events  of  that 
month.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  always  .fond  of  the  open, 
Morris  had  a  cottage  at  North  Lake,  some  nineteen 
miles  from  Ann  Arbor,  whither  he  resorted  often  for 
rest  and  recreation.  The  'call  of  the  wild'  being  upon 
him,  he  went  there  with  his  boy,  on  February  22d,  1889. 
As  is  usual  at  that  time  of  year  in  Michigan,  the  weather 
was  in  rough,  surly  mood,  and,  returning  home  the 
next  day,  both  caught  a  severe  chill.  The  son  developed 
fever,  and  his  condition  became  alarming.  The  father 
whose  case  did  not  arouse  anxiety,  improved  after  the 
first  weakness;  but  a  relapse  occurred,  and  death  ensued, 
on  March  23d.     Caught  unawares,  and  bereaved  most 

♦Cf.  above,  pp.  91,  92. 


176 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


sadly,  the  entire  community  was  shocked  terribly  and 
moved  to  its  depths.  Extraordinary  manifestations 
of  grief  and  respect  marked  the  occasion  of  the  funeral — 
to  Forest  Hill  Cemetery,  Ann  Arbor— on  27th  IMarch, 

1889. 

In  our  circles,  at  all  events,  it  is  abundantly  plain 
that,  'he,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh.'  For  his  person, 
self-hammered  into  complete  unity  with  his  teaching, 
conveyed  a  lesson  which  persuades  us  to  afSrm, 

''He  knows  that  outward  seemings  are  but  lies, 
Or,  at  the  most,  but  earthly  shadows,  whence 
The  soul  that  looks  for  truth  may  guess 
The  presence  of  some  wondrous  heavenliness." 

Note. — It  may  serve  to  prevent  misunderstanding  if,  at  this 
point,  I  append  a  statement  of  the  positions  held  by  Morris  in 
the  University  of  Michigan,  with  the  respective  dates: 

(1)  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  and  Literature;  Septem- 
ber, 1870,  tillJune,  1879; 

(2)  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  and  Literature  {ad 
interim),  June,  1879,  till  January,  1880; 

(3)  Professor  of  Ethics,  History  of  Philosophy  and  Logic 
(serving  one  semester  in  each  academic  year),  June,  1881,  till 

^January,  1885; 

(4)  Professor  of  Ethics,  History  of  Philosophy  and  Logic 
(Head  of  the  Department  of  Philosophy),  January,  1885,  till 
June,  1887; 

(5)  Professor  of  Philosophy  (Head  of  the  Department  of 
Philosophy),  June,  1887,  till  March,  1889. 


CHAPTER  Vn 


Intellectual  History.    Origins  and  Transition 


When  we  come  to  attempt  an  estimate  of  Morris  as  a 
thinker,  several  difficulties  must  be  acknowledged,  and 
borne  in  mind  throughout.  First,  materials  for  an  intim- 
ate review  of  his  entire  mental  history  are  lacking. 
Till  the  year  1874,  when  the  Ueberweg  translation  and 
the  articles  on  Trendelenburg  were  published,  we  find 
ourselves  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  such  general 
considerations  as  we  may  derive  from  the  tendencies 
of  New  England  culture  taken  as  a  special  phenomenon. 
No  doubt  these  are  definite  enough.  But,  second, 
documentary  evidence  fails  us  to  mark  the  steps  whereby 
he  passed  from  childhood  faith  to  a  more  or  less  sceptical 
mood.  Personal  recollections,  too,  are  scanty.  For, 
sensitive  and  shy,  he  never  wore  his  heart  on  his  sleeve. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  certain  that,  during  his  first  years 
at  Michigan,  he  was  ill  at  ease,  to  some  he  appeared  even 
distraught.  Third,  for  eight  years  after  1870,  his  main 
strength  was  absorbed  by  active  work  as  a  teacher  of 
modern  languages.  Likely  enough,  this  may  have  been 
advantageous — he  was  under  no  temptation,  much  less 
compulsion,  to  declare  himself,  and  so  avoided  the 
troubles  of  premature  pronouncement.  He  had  time 
to  mature  his  conclusions  and,  fighting  his  way  through 
while  his  teachers  receded  into  the  past,  he  schooled 
himself  after  his  own  fashion.  Indeed,  the  character- 
istics, noted  already  by  Dr.  Tucker  in  college  days, 
were  destined  to  mark  him  always.  His  later  thoughts, 
13  177 


178 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


like  his  early  opinions,  attest  his  personal  outlook 
rather  than  the  influence  of  masters.  In  any  case,  it  is 
not  till  1880  that  he  begins  to  betray  a  distinct  swing 
towards  the  standpoint  with  which  he  will  ever  be  assoc- 
iated in  the  history  of  American  philosophy.  His 
major  contributions  belong  to  the  last  eight  years  of 
his  life.  Finally,  it  must  be  insisted  that,  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  he  was  a  young  man,  comparatively  speaking, 
and  that,  consequently,  he  never  reached  the  point 
when  he  might  gather  himself  together,  as  it  were,  in  a 
magnum  opus,  offering  conclusive  summary  of  his  mental 
achievement.  When  the  end  came,  he  was  still  in 
process  of  growth. 

On  the  other  hand,  happily  for  us,  these  obstacles  to 
complete  understanding,  as  we  may  call  them,  are  re- 
lieved to  a  certain  extent.  For,  first,  nothing  could 
well  be  more  coercive  than  the  norms  that  moulded 
Morris,  the  boy  and  youth.  Moreover,  they  conferred 
an  immense  initial  advantage  upon  him.  It  was  im- 
possible for  him  to  hark  back  to  a  time  when  the  real 
importance  of  the  problems  of  philosophy  had  been 
obscured,  or  even  adjourned  sine  die,  by  the  pressure 
or  glamour  of  evanescent  aft'airs.  Constitutive  prin- 
ciples, regulating  life  pervasively,  had  been  his  familiars 
from  the  outset.  Hence,  secondly,  the  curve  of  his 
mental  career  was,  not  simply  a  personal  reaction  to 
provincial  conditions,  but  rather  representative  of  a 
great  movement  in  his  generation.  Nay,  it  may  be 
said  to  typify  the  spiritual  history  of  many  men — some 
destined  to  place  and  influence,  others  unknown  to  fame 
— during  the  third  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
particularly  in  the  English-speaking  world.  The  *  Divine 
Decrees '  that  governed  the  youth  originated  the  problems 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


179 


and  set  the  perspective  in  manhood.  Like  others, 
Morris  did  not  escape  the  intervening  process  scatheless. 
The  subject  of  a  profound  transformation,  his  first 
certainty  never  returned  full  circle.  Yet  he  knew  that 
he  had  chosen  the  right  road,  and  he  saw  the  goal  in 
plain  view.  The  pragmatic  seriousness,  present  from 
boyhood,  had  been  a  free  gift  from  his  folk,  and  he  was 
destined  to  preserve  it  throughout.  But  this  past 
rendered  him  permanently  wistful,  because  he  never 
could  regain  nawe  assurance.  No  less,  however,  it 
wrought  like  a  leaven,  for,  through  years  of  poignant 
struggle,  he  did  achieve  a  gospel — this  being  his  para- 
mount need.  In  common  with  other  idealists  of  his 
day  and  generation,  in  America  and  Britain,  practical 
interests,  especially  those  of  religion  and  morals,  were 
never  far  from  him.  And  so,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
mystical  hope,  somewhat  to  the  exclusion  of  systematic 
completeness,  replaced  confident  aflfirmation. 

"Yea,  though  I  am  not  now  such  strength  as  in 
Old  days  bewail'd  but  earth  and  fear'd  for  heaven, 

Such  as  I  am,  I  am:  knowing  myself. 

So  I  have  gathered  up  all  left  behind 

Like  to  the  wholeness  of  the  onroUing  year; 
That  there  is  no  regret:  but  onwardness." 


1.  Origins 

As  we  have  seen  at  length  already,  Morris  grew  to 
adolescence  in  a  very  definite  social,  moral  and  spiritual 
environment.  No  group-consciousness  was  ever  more 
certain  of  itself.  It  became  so  completely  part  and 
parcel  of  his  selfhood  that  it  swayed  him  long  after  he 
had  surmounted  its  standards  of  ethical  judgment,  and 
rejected   its   theological   convictions.     For,   we   cannot 


180 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


disguise  the  fact  that  his  philosophical  interests  con- 
verged upon  the  highest  human  ideals,  more  or  less  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  order  of  Nature.  The  positivist 
attitude,  with  all  its  implications,  remained  alien,  even 
distasteful — one  had  almost  said  disreputable — to  the 
end.  This  appears  continuously,  from  his  first  published 
essay,  on  Hodgson's  Time  and  Space,  till  the  latest 
expression  of  his  views,  in  the  pamphlet  entitled  Uni- 
versity Education.  His  qualities  and,  no  less,  the 
defects  of  his  qualities,  root  here.  It  is  essential, 
therefore,  to  consider  the  formative  phase  in  its  broader 
aspects  and,  if  possible,  to  do  it  every  justice — the  more 
that  to-day,  it  is  often  misunderstood,  when  not  actively 
misrepresented,  so  far  has  it  become  a  mere  memory 
among  us. 

We  have  tried  to  appraise  the  Morris  home  and  the 
influences  irradiated  by  it.  We  ought  to  note,  farther, 
that  when  the  bov  went  to  school,  identical  forces 
continued  to  play  upon  him.  Fortunately,  the  Historical 
Sketch*  of  Kimball  Union  Academy,  written  by  Principal 
Cyrus  S.  Richards,t  enables  us  to  form  a  tolerably  clear 

*  Cf.  The  General  Catalogue  and  a  Brief  History  of  Kimball  Union 
Academy,  pp.  7  f.  (Claremont,  N.  H.,  1880). 

t  Richards  was  an  excellent  scholar  and,  moreover,  a  '  good  deal  of  a 
man,'  as  the  expressive  phrase  runs.  He  seems  to  have  pervaded  the 
school.  I  am  fortunate  to  be  able  to  present  the  following  reminiscences 
of  the  man  and  the  institution,  from  the  hand  of  my  colleague,  Mr. 
Raymond  C.  Davis,  Librarian  Emeritus  of  the  University  of  Michigan: 

"In  thq  autumn  of  1852,  the  New  Hampshire  Literary  and  Theological 
Institution,  where  a  brother  and  myself  were  students,  was  removed 
from  New  Hampshire  to  Vermont.  We  did  not  choose  to  accompany  it, 
but,  instead,  went  to  the  Kimball  Union  Academy  at  Meriden.  As  I 
recall  the  school,  it  should  class  with  the  two  more  famous  academies, 
Phillips  Andover  and  Phillips  Exeter — except,  perhaps,  in  equipment  and 
financial  backing.  The  instruction  was  very  thorough,  and  the  dis- 
cipline strict. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


181 


estimate  of  the  temper  of  the  institution.  Richards 
had  received  his  secondary  education  in  this  school, 
over  which  he  presided  with  remarkable  success  for 
thirty-six  years  (1835-71). 

"The  historic  record  of  this  institution  dates  back  only  about 
seventy  years.  Our  country,  just  recovering  from  a  long  and 
depressing  war,  with  a  population  then  of  only  about  seven 
millions,  was  entering  upon  a  career  of  great  prosperity.  Emi- 
gration was  in  full  tide  toward  the  Great  West.  Meanwhile  a 
deep  taint  of  French  infidelity,  introduced  by  the  late  war,  was 
becoming  wide-spread  and  alarming.  Good  men  were  every- 
where aroused  to  lift  up  in  opposition  a  standard  of  righteousness 
and  truth;  to  raise  up  and  send  forth,  amid  the  teeming  popula- 
tions, an  evangelical  and  educated  ministry.  The  demand 
greatly  exceeded  the  supply. 

"About  the  year  1811  a  son  of  Deacon  Joseph  Foord,  of 
Piermont,  N.  H.,  had  gone  to  the  north  of  England  or  Scotland 
to  prosecute  Theological  studies,  attracted  by  a  popular  instit- 
ution, affording  gratuitous  instruction  to  candidates  for  the 
Christian  ministry,  in  indigent  circumstances.  ...  He  urged 
the  establishment  of  a  similar  one  at  home.  .  .  .  The  exigencies 

"Mr.  Cyrus  Richards,  the  principal,  was  an  unassuming  man,  but 
somewhat  of  a  tyrant,  nevertheless.  He  was  known  among  the  students 
as  the  Great  Kvpos;  and,  as  he  was  small  of  stature,  this  must  have  had 
reference  to  mental  qualities.  It  was  pleasant,  after  so  many  j^ears,  to 
hear  this  title  again  from  the  lips  of  Professor  Morris. 

"As  illustrating  the  unpretentiousness  of  the  man  (Richards),  I 
remember  some  words  of  his  regarding  titular  distinctions. 

"When  we  called  on  him,  on  our  arrival  in  Meriden,  he  questioned 
us  in  regard  to  the  New  Hampshire  school.  In  our  replies  we  spoke  of 
our  teachers  as  professors — as  they  were  addressed,  and  referred  to,  in 
New  Hampshire.  At  the  second  utterance  of  the  word,  he  interrupted 
with  some  heat: — 

"'You  say  professors — -that  title  should  not  be  used  in  speaking  to, 
or  of,  a  teacher  in  an  academy.  It  is  the  title  of  an  occupant  of  an  en- 
dowed chair  in  a  college.  You  must  not  apply  the  title  to  me  or  any 
one  connected  with  this  school.  I  am  Mr.  Richards.'  [Richards  did 
not  receive  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Dartmouth  till  I860.] 

"He  would  be  a  disgusted  man  if  he  lived  in  these  days! " 


182 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


of  the  times — the  great  lack  of  candidates  for  the  ministry  gave 
favor  to  the  new  idea."  After  several  abortive  attempts,  a 
council  of  the  leading  churches  in  New  England  was  convened 
at  Windsor,  Vt.,  in  October,  1812.  President  Dwight,  of  Yale 
College,  was  the  leading  spirit,  and  deprecated  "the  establish- 
ment of  schools  with  a  partial  and  limited  course  of  studies,  even 
for  the  purpose  of  multiplying  ministers."  As  a  result,  the 
Seminary  was  abandoned  in  favor  of  a  less  ambitious  academy, 
*' whose  object  should  be,  as  set  forth  in  the  charter, — 'To  assist 
in  the  education  of  poor  and  pious  young  men  for  the  gospel 
ministry.'  .  .  .  None  could  become  beneficiaries  under  this 
arrangement  without  the  declared  intention  of  pursuing  the  full 
course  of  college  and  theological  studies.  It  was  christened 
by  tliis  body  with  the  name  of  Union  Academy — it  being  the 
offspring  of  the  united  churches  of  New  England.  .  .  . 

''Hon.  Daniel  Kimball,  of  Meriden,  N.  H.,  arose  in  the  council 
and  said  that  God  had  blessed  him  with  a  liberal  fortune,  but 
with  no  natural  heir  to  inherit  it.  He  recognized  the  providence 
of  God  in  this  movement,  and  was  ready  to  pledge  the  institution 
six  thousand  dollars  for  immediate  use,  and  the  bulk  of  his 
property  at  liis  decease.  This  offer  .  .  .  determined  its  full 
name  after  the  decease  of  Mr.  Kimball,  in  1817.  .  .  . 

"Under  such  auspices,  then,  did  this  institution  enter  upon 
its  most  useful  career.  Any  adequate  history  of  its  future,  of 
nearly  three  quarters  of  a  century,  would  require  several  volumes, 
rather  than  the  few  pages  allotted  to  this  introduction.  The 
full  record  will  be  disclosed  only  when  the  books  are  opened  in 
the  revelation  of  the  Great  Day.  .  .  . 

"The  patronage  of  the  school  ...  at  once  became  very 
large;  gathered  not  only  from  all  the  New  England  States,  but 
from  much  a  wider  circle  of  almost  all  the  States  and  also  from 
the  Canadas.  .  .  .  And  such  patronage,  too,  as  certainly  cannot 
be  found  out  of  New  England  .  .  .  gathered  largely  from  the 
middle,  industrial  classes,  from  Christian  homes  of  the  Puritan 
stock,  bred  to  habits  of  industry  and  economy,  and  not  afraid 
of  hard  work.  This  was  a  natural  result  of  the  primal  object  of 
the  institution — to  assist  and  encourage  Christian  young  men, 
in  indigent  circumstances  and  of  promising  talents,  for  the  min- 
istry. .  .  .  The  value  of  a  band  of  earnest,  Christian  young  men 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


183 


in  a  large  school,  as  a  conservative  and  efficient  power,  cannot 
easily  be  estimated.  This  will  account,  in  part  at  least,  for  the 
high  moral  and  religious  tone  of  the  school,  and  for  the  powerful 
and  most  precious  revivals  of  religion,  during  almost  its  entire 
history.  .  .  . 

"Little  space  is  left  me  to  speak  of  the  results  and  fruits  which 
have  been  the  outgrowth  of  an  institution  thus  Providentially 
founded  and  cared  for.  .  .  .  The  record  is  safely  recorded  above. 
How  much  plainer  and  fuller  shall  we  understand  it  all,  when  the 
'Book  of  Remembrance'  shall  be  opened!  .  .  .  The  day  of 
unveiling  draweth  on,  when  all  the  deeds  of  men  will  be  truly 
judged." 

The  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Hon.  Daniel  Kimball,* 
which  follows  Dr.  Richards'  history,  is  to  similar  effect. 

"At  the  age  of  twenty  eight  he  experienced,  as  he  believed,  the 
new  birth,  and  was  ever  after  warmly  devoted  to  the  service 
and  interests  of  Christ's  kingdom. 

"When  the  dehberations  which  resulted  in  the  founding  of  the 
Academy  began  they  naturally  attracted  the  attention  of  Mr. 
Kimball.  His  sanctified  intelhgence  could  see  the  importance 
of  such  an  institution.  .  .  .  Then  the  Lord  had  prospered  liim, 
while  he  had  no  children,  and  he  must  have  asked  himself  to 
what  best  use  he  could  put  his  wealth.  Thus  he  came  early  into 
the  councils  of  these  good  men  who  were  seeking  to  lay  these 
foundations  for  Christ  and  His  Church." 

Nurtured  and  directed  thus  in  home  and  school, 
Morris,  as  a  pupil  at  Kimball  Union,  and  as  an  under- 
graduate at  Dartmouth,  placed  on  record,  in  his  Private 
Journal,  opinions  which,  in  our  day,  are  nigh  inconceivable 
as  coming  from  such  a  quarter.  Several  extracts  may 
be  quoted  by  way  of  farther  illustration.  Moreover, 
they  will  compel  us  to  seek  the  fundamental  principles 
presupposed  in  this  all-embracing  institutionalism  but, 
of  course,  not  yet  consciously  envisaged  by  the  lad. 

*  By  Rev.  Henry  A.  Hazen,  A.M.     Of.  Ibid.,  p.  14. 


184 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


The  following  passages,  typical  of  the  tone  of  the 
Journal  as  a  whole,  embody  the  reflections  and  paramount 
interests  of  a  Sophomore  during  the  latter  part  of  his 
academic  year,  strange  as  this  may  seem  to  us.* 

"Yesterday,  Professor  Boardman,  of  Middlebury  College, 
preached  at  Norwich.  I  had  never  heard  him  before,  and  I  am 
free  to  confess  that  he  surpassed  in  some  respects  my  expecta- 
tions. His  sermons  were  of  the  richest  character.  .  .  .  He 
spoke  words  of  living  truth.  He  preached  in  the  morning  upon 
the  sufferings  of  Christ,  showing  that  they  were  deeper  than  His 
mere  physical  suffering  on  the  Cross;  that  Christ  felt,  in  the 
hours  preceding  His  crucifixion,  the  burden  of  our  sins,  and  that 
the  Christian  faith  impHed  a  full  behef  in  this  fact." 

''Last  Thursday  evening,  I  took  charge  of  a  meeting  in  the 
Vestry  to  which  all  were  invited.  The  meeting  is  under  the 
direction  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  I  took  for 
my  subject  the  sixth  verse  of  the  third  chapter  of  Proverbs: 
'Trust  in  the  Lord  with  all  thine  heart;  and  lean  not  unto  thine 
own  understanding.'  I  first  defined  true  and  false  trust  in  God, 
and  then  mentioned  some  of  the  motives  for  trusting  in  the  Lord." 

"I  have  not  written  in  my  journal  so  often  during  the  last 
year  as  might  perhaps  in  some  respects  have  been  useful.  But 
it  is  not  strange  that  one  who  is  not  nerved,  in  respect  to  every 
duty,  with  a  strong  and  overruling  determination  to  perform 
that  duty,  should  frequently  allow  himself  to  leave  many  opport- 
unities unoccupied.  ...  I  feel  as  if  I  really  had  something 
now  which  is  worthy  to  be  recorded.  I  feel  sensible  that  God  has 
graciously  manifested  Himself  to  me.  For  never  before  yesterday 
have  I  known  in  an  equal  degree  the  blessedness  which  arises  from 
a  feeling  of  entire  consecration  and  submission.  Not  that  I  do  not 
still '  groan,  being  burdened; '  for  I  am  still  in  possession  of  a  rebel- 
lious heart;  I  am  still  unable  to  do  what  I  would — or  rather,  I  still 
lack  the  disposition  to  do  what  I  should.  But  yesterday,  after 
hearing  a  sermon  in  the  forenoon  bj'  Mr.  Boardman  from  Psalms — 
'Lord,  show  me  the  measure  of  my  days' — relative  to  the  death 

*  Cf.  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism,  Woodbridge 
Riley,  pp.  55,  175. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


185 


of  Dr.  Richards  of  this  place,  and  another  in  the  afternoon, 
from  Luke,  xviii.,  1,  upon  the  duty  of  constant  praj^er,  I 
returned  to  my  home  and,  after  my  usual  custom,  retired  to  my 
room  for  private  prayer  and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  was  enabled 
to  ask  for  spiritual  blessings  with  such  force  and  devotion,  that 
for  most  of  the  time  since  I  have  felt  constrained  to  say,  '  Bless 
the  Lord,  O  my  soul!" 

"This  afternoon  President  Lord — in  compHance  with  a  request 
from  the  students — delivered  in  the  College  Chapel  a  eulogy 
upon  Prof.  Young,  who  died  last  fall.  .  .  .  The  first  half  of  the 
discourse  was  taken  up  with  remarks  on  the  wrong  tendency 
and  results  of  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  without  a  corres- 
ponding religious  culture,  and  asserted  the  destructiveness  or 
inutility  of  learning  and  fantastic  wisdom — thus  acquired — for 
any  good  purpose.  He  then  showed  off  Prof.  Young's  fife  as  a 
good  illustration  of  the  proper  combination  of  sanctity  and 
learning." 

Death  had  made  inroads  upon  Morris's  circle  during 
this  year.  Considerable  portions  of  the  Journal  are  de- 
voted to  comments  upon  the  subject,  to  which  he  returns 
later,  in  his  Senior  year.  His  reactions  are  indicative 
of  his  contemporary  outlook. 

"Arthur  Morris  Kellogg,  if  he  were  today  aUve,  would  be 
eleven  years  old  this  day.  But  his  body  is  not  now  alive,  al- 
though that  which  in  reality  constituted  him  a  person  is,  without 
doubt,  still  full  of  life,  and  is  now,  let  us  hope,  just  beginning  a 
life  of  eternal  blessedness.  .  .  .  His  death  was  a  most  severe 
blow  to  his  widowed  mother,  as  well  as  an  affliction  and  shocking 
providence  to  us  all.  For  he  was  a  boy  of  unusual  promise — 
conscientious  beyond  what  is  usual  among  boys.  He  feared  to 
disobey  God,  or  his  parent.  True,  as  in  other  boys,  the  inclina- 
tion to  do  evil  often  prevailed,  and  the  rod  of  correction  had  to 
be  applied,  but  his  corrections  and  instructions  were  by  no 
means  to  no  purpose,  and  showed  themselves  in  an  increasing 
adherence  to  the  right  as  the  years  increased  in  number.  His 
religious  experience  was  extended.  Being,  as  he  was,  the  child 
of  many  prayers,  and  having  had  the  benefit  of  the  pious  instruc- 


186 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


tion  of  his  mother  almost  daily,  as  well  as  the  weekly  teachings 
and  admonitions  of  his  Sabbath  School  Teacher,  and  having 
been  much  influenced  by  the  words  of  Mr.  Boardman,  especially 
during  the  revival  of  January-February,  1858,  his  mind  had 
been  disturbed  by  many  reflections  upon  his  lost  condition  by 
nature,  and  upon  the  way  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ. 
And  many  times  he  had  expressed  the  hope  that  he  was  a  Christ- 
ian, and  although,  at  first,  in  a  way  which  seemed  to  belong  to 
one  not  thoroughly  understanding  what  he  said,  yet  finally 
leading  his  Mother,  who  was  his  confidant  in  rehgious  matters, 
to  indulge  the  hope  that  he  was  an  'heir  to  the  heavenly  inherit- 
ance,' and  that,  although  the  immaturity  of  his  age  prevented 
him  having  the  faith  of  Christ  in  the  same  manner  in  which  one 
of  riper  age  and  broader  comprehension  would  hold  it,  still  he 
had  a  child's  faith  and  a  child's  love,  and  that  in  such  a  way  as  to 
secure  his  admission  to  the  fold  of  Christ,  in  heaven." 

This  extraordinary  pronouncement,  about  a  child  of 
ten  years  of  age,  brings  home,  perhaps  better  than 
anything  else  in  the  Journal,  the  force  and  the  naivete  of 
the  convictions  upon  which  Morris  was  brought  up. 
To  the  same  effect  are  his  remarks  subsequent  to  the 
deaths  of  three  of  his  comrades  in  the  Senior  Class. 

''I  think  that  the  preceding  providences  of  God  to  our  Class 
and  the  College  have  not  been  sufficiently  considered  by  Christ- 
ians, much  less  by  others.  Nothing  is  plainer  than  that  God 
is  calling  upon  us  to  'be  also  ready';  and  that,  most  assuredly, 
we  'who  have  tasted  and  seen  that  the  Lord  is  good'  ought  with 
the  greatest  earnestness  to  make  use  of  God's  afflictions  and 
monitory  dealings  to  enforce  the  great  lesson  of  faith  in  Christ 
and  justification  through  His  name." 

In  his  last  term  as  a  College  Senior,  Morris  set  down 

those  reflections  upon  prayer: 

*'At  present  I  have  ample  time  for  reading,  meditation  and 
prayer.  I  say  prayer,  for  I  am  convinced  that  earnest,  import- 
unate, habitual  and  long-continued  prayer  is  the  duty  of  every 
Christian.    It  is  a  duty  which  cannot  be  shirked  with  impunity. 


GEORGE   SLYVESTER   MORRIS 


187 


For,  if  holiness  of  life  and  the  conversion  of  the  impenitent  are 
(the  one)  obUgatory  and  (the  other)  important,  prayer,  which  is 
one  of  the  direct  methods  of  attaining  these  objects,  may  not 
rightly  be  neglected.  If  time  can  not  be  readily  obtained  in  any 
other  way,  some  inferior  duties  should  be  set  aside,  that  we  may 
have  an  opportunity  for  sincere  and  prevaiHng  prayer. 

"The  present  rehgious  state  of  the  College  is,  I  think,  hopeful. 
If  every  Christian  were  to  set  resolutely  to  laboring  and  prajing 
for  the  revival  of  God's  work,  how  long  could  it  be  delayed? 
If  every  one  were  determined  riot  to  let  God  go  without  a  blessing, 
and  were  willing  to  do  or  suffer  anything  to  secure  so  blessed  an 
end,  can  any  one  suppose  that  God  would  be  unfaithful  to  His 
sacred  promises?  But,  how  is  this  state  to  be  secured  in  God's 
people?  Only  by  the  working  of  His  Holy  Spirit  which,  again, 
we  may  not  reasonably  expect  unless  there  is  prayer  and  prepar- 
ation therefor.  God  grant  His  Heavenly  Grace  that  I,  and 
others  of  his  professed  followers  in  College,  may  not  be  so  taken 
up  with  literature  and  earthly  pleasure  as  to  forget  the  higher 
and  all-important  good — the  presence  of  the  Divine  Spirit." 

It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  disentangle  the  essential 
presuppositions  pertinent  to  such  views,  especially  when 
the  material  before  us  happens  to  be  the  random, 
pietistic  phrases  of  an  immature  undergraduate.  Never- 
theless, the  attempt  cannot  be  avoided,  because  it  is  evi- 
dent that  Morris,  the  thinker,  was  influenced  throughout 
life  by  this,  his  starting-point,  far  more  profoundly  than 
by  any  other  single  consideration.  To  liberate  himself 
from  it  or,  at  all  events,  to  rethink  it,  remained  his  prime 
object  as  it  w^as  his  paramount  need.  He  began  and 
ended  a  "Christian  spiritualist."  Indeed,  being  con- 
strained, he  could  not  do  otherwise.  Nay,  this  is  the 
chief  interest  of  his  mental  career.  For,  he  passed  from 
earnest  belief  into  "intrepid  thinking  on  the  things  of 
eternity."  What  Jowett  said  of  Wallace  could  be 
affirmed  of  Morris  with  no  less  truth. 


188 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


189 


I 


"On  his  pupils,  this  secret  power  of  an  other-world  serenity 
laid  an  irresistible  spell,  and  bore  in  upon  them  the  conviction 
that  beyond  scholarship  and  logic  there  was  the  fuller  truth  of 
life,  and  the  all-embracing  duty  of  doing  their  best  to  fulfil  the 
amplest  requirements  of  their  place."* 

Fortunately,  too,  much  as  they  have   been  misinter- 
preted by  a  later  generation,  the  prime  factors  of  the 
early,   formative   period   happen   to   be   plain   enough. 
We  are  confronted,  if  not  with  a  unique,  at  least  with  an 
exceptional  combination  between  common  sense  or  irre- 
flective  cognitions  and  a  reasoned,  systematic  knowledge. 
The  latter,  a  correction  or  critical  extension  of  the  former 
as  a  rule,  has,  in  this  case,  returned  to  the  level  of '  natural 
knowledge'  in  common  life,  and  become  so  absorbed 
in  it  as  to  be  regulative  of  the  ideas  and  activities  of  the 
average  man,  even  of  the  little  child.     Ordinary  faculties 
are,   if  not  sharpened,   then  guided   by   a   methodical 
scheme  that  has  filtered  to  them  from  a  complete  or, 
if  you  please,  'scientific,'  'colligated'  plan.     In  short, 
a  real  order  of  existence,  the  product  of  concentrated 
reflection,   has  been  elicited  from  the  apparent  order 
.of  sensuous  things,  thus  giving  ampler  import  to  the 
plain  affairs  of  the  work-a-day  world.     No  doubt,  the 
youthful  Morris   passes  from  the   one  to  the  other,  un- 
aware of  the  leap  for  the  most  part,  because  he  accepts 
the  transcendental  order  as  innocently  as  he  perceives 
objects  that  appeal  to  the  senses.     Thus,  the  question 
arises  of  the  principles  distinctive  of  this  system,  prin- 
ciples w^hich  had  come  to  be  a  possession  of  the  folk  no 
less  natural  and  heritable  than  normal  powers  of  sensuous 
observation.     Theological    although    these    were,    they 

*  Lectures  and  Essays  on  Natural  Theology  and  Ethics,  William  Wallace, 
p.  xi  (quoted  by  Edward  Caird  in  his  "Biographical  Introduction" 
on  Wallace). 


led  forthwith  to  philosophical  problems;  that  is,  speaking 
generally,  to  the  real  order  of  existence  as  it  can  be 
ascertained  by  disengaging  the  universal  and  necessary 
from  the  shows  of  time  and  sense.  Nor  was  this  order 
a  curious  theoretical  plaything,  an  excuse  for  the  exercise 
of  intellectual  ingenuity.  Grasp  upon  it  w^as  inculcated 
with  direct  practical  intent.  Apprehended  of  it,  man 
would  achieve  new^  endurance,  would  confront  his 
world  with  new  assurance,  would  put  his  life  out  to 
interest  for  new  purposes,  thoroughly  worth  while. 

Its  specific  development  in  the  North  Atlantic  States 
notwithstanding,  the  New  England  conscience  was  no 
local  or  provincial  product.     On  the  contrary, 

"In  its  wider  relations  and  its  deepest  sources  this  movement 
is  not  to  be  fully  comprehended  unless  it  is  put  in  its  place  among 
the  religious  movements  of  the  whole  Protestant  world.  .  .  • 
The  Reformation  united  the  great  nations  of  the  Teutonic 
family  which  it  took  out  of  the  fold  of  Rome  by  a  community 
of  interests,  not  only  political  and  rehgious,  but  also  theological- 
....  Remoteness  and  rarity  of  communication  do  not  destroy 
it.  Ties  of  blood  and  intimate  poUtical  relations  serve  only  to 
faciUtate  it.  The  channels  of  communication,  like  subterranean 
streams,  it  may  sometimes  be  impossible  to  trace.  The  whole 
phenomenon  depends  upon  and  illustrates  the  fundamental 
unity  of  Protestantism  amid  all  its  superficial  diversity.  .  .  . 
The  fundamental  connection  of  New  England  with  all  this 
international  ferment  and  development  is  seen  in  the  remarkable 
fact  that,  in  spite  of  its  apparent  and  real  isolation,  the  great 
periods  of  theological  history  are  repeated  here  with  almost 
identical  dates.  .  .  .  These  facts  show  how  fully  New  England 
theology  is  a  world-phenomenon.  ...  It  was  singularly  homo- 
geneous, since  it  derived  its  motive  force  from  a  single  source. 
The  materials  with  which  the  New  England  writers  wrought, 
and  the  later  impulses  which  they  received  from  various  quarters, 
were  Enghsh,  Puritan,  Calvinistic  exclusively."* 

*  A  Genetic  History  of  the  New  England  Theology,  Frank  Hugh  Foster, 
pp.  4,  5,  7,  8.     Of.  the  whole  chapter. 


190 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


In  brief,  we  are  dealing  with  one  of  the  several  mani- 
festations of  the  Theology  of  the  Reformed  churches. 
Morris  derived  his  cast  of  thought  from  this  unique 
system  and,  despite  radically  different  spiritual  exper- 
iences, never  forsook  the  'climate  of  opinion'  to  which 
he  had  become  habituated  as  child,  boy  and  young  man. 
Let  us  trv  to  see  whv. 

The  Reformed  Theology,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Lutheran,  was  originated  by  Zwingli,  and  received 
mature  expression  from  Calvin.  It  attained  influence 
in  France,  in  portions  of  Germany  (notably  the  Palatin- 
ate), in  Bohemia,  and  in  England;  but  it  never  contrived 
to  dominate  these  regions.  Its  clean-run  children  and 
most  strenuous  exponents  have  been  the  four  very  small 
and  very  intense  national  groups — the  Swiss,  the  Dutch, 
the  Scots,  and  the  New  England  Puritans.  It  is  no 
accident  that  these  peoples  owe  their  influence  in  the 
world — so  utterly  out  of  proportion  to  their  numbers 
and  material  resources — to  their  thorough  discipline 
by  this  system. 

A  succinct  elucidation  of  its  principles,  with  special 
reference  to  their  philosophical  implications,  may  best 
be  made,  perhaps,  by  recalling  that  the  Reformed 
Theology  embodied  two  main,  complementary  elements. 
On  the  one  hand,  there  is  the  anthropological  aspect, 
as  theologians  term  it,  known  to  philosophers  as  the 
subjective;  on  the  other,  the  theological  aspect,  strictly 
so  called,  known  to  philosophers  as  the  objective. 

According  to  the  former,  religion  is  held  to  be  a  natural 
or  essential  factor  in  the  constitution  of  Man.  In 
other  words,  it  is  universal,  never  contingent.  This 
necessarily  excludes  the  Roman  doctrine  that,  consequent 
upon  the  Fall,  Man  lost  this  endowment  which,  there- 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


191 


after,  must  be  considered  a  donum  supernaturale.  That 
is  to  say,  religion  formed  no  part  of  the  'essence'  of 
Adam,  but  was  an  'accident' — something  bestowed 
('superadded'  was  the  technical  term)  by  Divine  power. 
In  like  manner,  the  Reformed  Theology  repudiated  the 
Lutheran  view,  according  to  which  Man  had  been  so 
corrupted  by  the  Fall  that  he  could  by  no  means  attain 
true  knowledge  of  God.  Even  more  emphatically,  it 
traversed  the  Socinian  teaching,  that  Man  is  devoid  of 
religion  naturally,  and  incapable  of  knowing  God  by 
his  own  reason  which,  at  best,  can  assure  him  nothing 
higher  than  morality.  On  the  contrary,  the  Reformed 
Theology  held  a  religio  naturalis  innata.  As  Calvin 
affirms,  writing  of  the  Dei  sensus:  "  Quendam  inesse 
humanae  menti  et  quidem  naturali  instinctu  dimnationis 
sensum  extra  controversiam  ponimus.  Hie  divinitatis 
sensus  nunquam  delire  potest.''  It  is  obvious  that  this 
teaching  wholly  excludes  such  philosophical  standpoints 
as  Nominalism,  Empiricism,  or  Positivism;  in  this 
respect,  its  influence  upon  Morris  can  scarcely  be  exag- 
gerated. It  leads  straight  to  some  form  of  Divine 
immanence.  As  is  well  known,  Zwingli  went  far  in 
this  direction.  But  it  may  surprise  some  to  learn  that 
Calvin,  in  his  teaching  with  regard  to  "  Acquired  Natural 
Religion,"  did  not  lag  far  behind.  "  Non  solum  mentibus 
indidit  Deus  religionis  semen,  sed  se  patefecit  in  toto 
mundi  opificio:  ut  aperire  oculos  nequeant  quin  aspicere 
eum  cogantur."  Evidently,  reason  thus  becomes  Plat- 
onized  intelligence — a  faculty  conversant  about  trans- 
cendental ideas.  The  First  Book  of  Calvin's  In- 
stitutes — "On  the  Cognition  of  God  the  Creator" — 
makes  this  abundantly  plain.     Nor  is  this  all. 

*' Chapters  VI.  to  IX.  [of  the  Westminster  Confession]  pre- 
sent the  usual  doctrines  of  the  Evangelical  Reformed  (Augus- 


192 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


tinian)  anthropology,  with  the  new  feature  of  the  Covenants. 
The  doctrine  of  the  covenants  belongs  to  a  different  scheme  of 
theology  from  that  of  the  divine  decrees.  It  is  biblical  and 
historical  rather  than  scholastic  and  predestinarian.  It  views 
man  from  the  start  as  a  free  responsible  agent,  not  as  a  machine 
for  the  execution  of  absolute  divine  decrees."* 

This  new  doctrine,— bred  in  the  bone  with  :Morris,— 
which  held  that  "the  Bible  is  the  history  of  redemption, 
in  the  form  of  a  covenant  between  God  and  man  after  the 
Fall,"  made  room  for  a  rational  account  of  the  develop- 
ment of  religion,  thus  prefiguring  the  Hegelian  system. 
A  series  of  stages,  each  higher  than  its  predecessor,  had 
occurred  in  history,  until,  at  length,  an  'absolute' 
stage  was  reached,  thanks  to  the  revelation  through 

Jesus  Christ. 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  interpreted  philosoph- 
ically on  its  anthropological  side,  the  Reformed  Theology 
must  have  afforded  Morris,  not  merely  excellent  prepar- 
ation, but  also  materials  which  he  had  only  to  free  from 
mechanical  orthodoxy  in  order  to  lay  bare  fundamental 
principles  of  a  thorough  y  rational  character.  Certainly, 
jthis  stream  of  tendency  lay  hidden  from  him  for  many 
years.  Moreover,  I  think  that,  in  his  ignorance  of 
technical  theology,  which  he  came  to  deplore,  he  never 
saw  the  connection  clearly.  At  the  same  time,  it  is 
unquestionable  that  the  temper  and  outlook  induced 
by  his  early  norms  served  but  to  direct  his  steps  after- 
wards, and  to  confirm  him  finally  in  the  convictions 
that  marked  his  later  philosophy. 

Similar  affirmations  may  be  made  with  regard  to  the 
theological  or  objective  aspect  of  the  Reformed  teaching. 


*  The  Creeds  of  Christendom,  Philip  Schaff,  Vol.  I.,  p.  773.     Cf. 
Cocceius,   Summa  Doctrince  de  Fcedere  et   Testamentis  Dei   (1648); 
Burmann,  Synopsis  Theologies  et  (Economic  Faderum  Dei  (1671). 


J. 
F. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


193 


For  example,  in  contrast  to  Ritschlianism, — the  reduction 
of  Lutheranism  to  an  argumentum  ad  hominem,  with, 
one  must  admit,  the  authority  of  Luther,  who  railed 
at  Frau  Vernunft,  calling  her  "the  old  trouble-maker," — 
the  Reformed  Theology  is  absolutist  and  gnostic,  in 
the  sense  of  theo-gnostic.  It  points  to  God  as  the 
ultimate  ground  of  reality,  known  in  His  essential 
nature  and  attributes,  manifesting  Himself  in  all  things, 
with  crowning  consummation  in  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Of  course,  this  view  was  long  identified  w^ith 
and  largely  obscured  by  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of 
predestination  and  election  and,  especially  in  New- 
England,  the  subsequent  dispute  about  the  freedom  of 
human  w^ill  served  to  divert  attention  from  the  original 
principles.  Something  of  this  sort  cost  Morris  his 
prolonged  detour.  At  the  same  time,  when  the  mechan- 
ical or  realistic  lapses  of  many  Calvinists  are  swept 
aside,  w^hat  we  actually  find  is  insistence  upon  a  synthetic 
Divine  teleology,  with  immediate  extrusion  of  dualism 
in  all  its  fecund  forms.  A  concrete  Weltanschauung, 
as  the  fundamental  contention  runs,  is  natural  to  Man. 
For,  according  to  the  essential  theory,  Man  is  know-n  to 
be,  not  merely  the  subject  of  a  free  self-consciousness 
manifesting  God's  eternal  purpose,  but  he  is  also  aware 
that,  by  possession  of  a  'chief  end,'  he  is  the  vehicle  of 
this  manifestation.  Or,  putting  it  otherwise,  human 
nature  attains  universal  self-consciousness  when  its 
innate  religious  capacity  has  become  so  developed  that 
it  can  body  forth  the  objective  principle — God.  Thus, 
the  Fall  takes  rank  as  a  means  to  a  more  direct  or  ade- 
quate revelation  of  the  'eternal  consciousness' — a 
'moment'  in  the  evolution  which  leads  to  perfect  'medi- 
ation.' Hence,  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  becomes 
13 


II 


Vi 


194 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


the  consummation  of  the  world-process,  and  the  recog- 
nition of  the  indwelHng  of  this  same  Spirit,  in  Grace, 
the  irrefragable  basis  of  religious  certainty.  Once  more, 
then,  it  was  no  far  cry  from  the  unconscious  phrasings 
of  the  Puritan  lad  to  the  "Christian  spiritualism"  of 
the  mature  professor.  The  perspective  of  the  theolog- 
ical system  does  not  differ  widely  from  that  of  the  ideal- 
istic philosophy— except  in  so  far  as  theology  is  not 
philosophy.  Accordingly,  Morris  was  but  returning 
home  from  a  lengthy  and  devious  journey  when  he 
could  recognize,  with  Green: 

''We  must  hold  then  that  there  is  a  consciousness  for  which 
the  relations  of  fact,  that  form  the  object  of  our  gradually  at- 
tained knowledge,  already  and  eternally  exist;  and  that  the 
growing  knowledge  of  the  individual  is  a  progress  towards  this 


y}Hi 


consciousness 

One  might  infer  readily,  then,  that  a  Theology  so 
profound  would  have  sufficed  to  furnish  Morris  with 
satisfactory,  if  not  final,  positions.  But  we  must 
remember  that,  thanks  to  Protestant  scholasticism  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  to  the  controversy  with 
the  Deists  in  the  eighteenth,  which  forced  the  evangelical 
participants  into  an  untenable  position  on  behalf  of 
apologetics,  the  original  principles  were  forgotten  or 
overlaid.!     It    became    necessary    to    stress    prophecy 

« 

*  Prolegomena  to  Ethics,  p.  75  (1st  edition). 

t  Several  distinguished  theologians  have  protested  against  the 
apologetic  corruptions  of  the  Reformed  Theology.  Chief  among  them 
are:  F.  C.  Baur,  Katholicismus  u.  Protestantismus  (1834) ;  H.  L.  J.  Heppe, 
Die  Dogmatik  d.  Protestantismus  im  16.  Jahrhundert,  3  vols.  (1857), 
Ursprung  u.  Geschichte  d.  Bezeichungen  'reformirte'  u.  ' lutherische' 
Kirche  (1859);  Die  Dogmatik  d.  evangelische-reformirten  Kirche  (1860); 
J.  H.  A.  Ebrard,  Christliche  Dogmatik,  2  vols.  (2d  ed.,  1862-3);  Wissen- 
achaftlichte  Rechtfertigung d.  Christenthuma  (2ded.,  1878-80),  in  Germany; 
A.    Schweizer,    Die    protestantischen    Centraldogmen,    innerhalb    d.    ref. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


195 


and  miracles  as  external  proofs  of  the  Christian  revela- 
tion, while  revelation  itself  came  to  be  conceived  as  a 
lawless  inbreak  from  an  unknowable  realm.  Men 
committed  themselves  to  the  error,  literally  tremendous 
in  its  consequences  since,  particularly  after  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  that  evidence  applicable  to 
the  objects  of  sense,  and  methods  of  proof  available  in 
the  natural  sciences,  can  be  transferred  to  the  objects 
of  religion.  In  common  with  so  many  others  in  his  day, 
Morris  had  to  pay  his  full  share  of  the  penalty  for  this 
strange  blunder. 

Moreover,  the  influence  of  the  Scottish  School  of 
philosophy,  which  began  to  assert  itself  in  New  England 
about  1820,  proved  unfavourable  to  vital  discussion  of 
ultimate  problems.*  Reid  and  his  followers  were 
interested  in  descriptive  psychology,  for  the  rehabilit- 
ation of  common-sense,  so  severely  mauled   by  Hume, 

Kirche,  2  vols.  (1854-6),  Die  christliche  Glauhenslehre  nach  prot.  Grund- 
s&tzen  dargestellt,  2  vols.  (2d  ed.,  1877);  M.  Schneckenburger,  Vorglei- 
chende  Darstellung  d.  lutherische  u.  reformirte  Lehrbegriffs,  2  vols.  (1855), 
Die  Lehrbegriffe  d.  kleineren  prot.  Kirchenparteien  (1863),  in  Switzerland; 
J.  H.  Scholten,  De  Leer  d.  Hervormde  Kerk  in  hare  Grundbcginselen 
(1855;  German  trans.,  from  the  4th  ed.,  1865),  in  Holland.  None  of 
these  works  influenced  Morris's  philosophical  teachers;  nor  can  I  find 
that  they  were  inwardly  marked  by  his  theological  professors.  H.  B. 
Smith  was  stimulated  most  by  Neander  and  Twesten,  both  disciples  of 
Schleiermacher,  and  by  that  notable  representative  of  the  'new  ortho- 
doxy' in  Germany,  Hengstenberg;  he  was  also  influenced,  like  Morris 
himself,  by  the  theism  of  Trendelenburg  and  Ulrici,  the  philosophers,  of 
Berlin  and  Halle.  But  he  owed  most  to  Tholuck,  the  Halle  theologian, 
perhaps  the  most  representative  member  of  the  Conciliation  or  Medi- 
ating School  of  Theology,  with  whom  he  was  on  terms  of  close  personal 
friendship.  On  Tholuck's  pietism  see  J.  Stalker  in  The  Expositor 
(eighth  series),  vol.  IV.,  pp.  159  f.  (1912);  cf.,  Germany:  Its  Universities, 
Theology,  and  Religion,  Philip  Schaff,  chap,  xxvi.,  (Philadelphia,  1857). 
*  Cf.  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism,  Riley, 
pp.  120  f. 


196 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


as  they  understood  him.  Besides,  being  devoid  of 
speculative  insight,  they  did  not,  as  indeed  McCosh 
himself  suggests,*  reahze  "the  profound  peculiarities" 
of  the  Reformed  Theology.  Judged  by  the  standards 
of  contemporary  German  thought,  of  which  the  philo- 
sophical professors,  unlike  the  theologians  of  New  Eng- 
land, would  seem  to  have  been  ignorant,  their  meta- 
physic  was  uncritical  and  unscientific — there  was 
nothing  of  the  zu  Ende  denken  about  it.  As  Chalmers, 
writing  so  early  as  1801,  had  the  wit  to  see,  it  was  ''made 
up  of  detailed  hints  and  incomplete  outlines,"  and 
"almost  uniformly  avoids  every  subject  which  involves 
difficult  discussion."!  So,  too,  in  New  England,— the 
University  of  Vermont  under  Marsh  a  striking  excep- 
tion,t— the  prevalent  method  was  to  divide  the  philo- 
sophical field  into  specific  disciplines,  descriptive  psy- 
chology and  intuitional  ethics  forming  the  centres  of 
main  activity.  Accordingly,  a  body  of  correct  knowledge 
was  taken  over  uncritically  from  ordinary  experience, 
by  appeal,  overt  or  tacit,  to  custom  and  tradition.  It 
was  thus  easy  for  the  clerical  occupants  of  philosophical 
chairs  to  keep  peace  between  philosophy  and  theology, 
by  the  simple  expedient  of  confining  themselves  to 
*safe'  subjects.  On  the  other  hand,  the  metaphysical 
presuppositions— '  full  of  dynamite,'  as  they  always 
are — were  relegated  to  the  theologians  who,  in  their 
turn,  were  able  to  expound  the  'true'  system  without 
interference  from  a  shattering  philosophical  criticism. 
Hence,  Burton  and  Taylor  and  Park  and  H.  B.  Smith, 
to  name  no  others,  merit  lasting  remembrance,  they 

*  The  Scottish  Philosophy,  from  Hutcheson  to  Hamilton,  p.  299. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  281. 

t  Cf .  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism,  Woodbridge 

Riley,  pp.  161.  170. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


197 


were  doing  significant  work,  but — where  were  the  free 
speculative  thinkers,  the  pure  scientists  in  the  things 
of  the  mind?  In  a  word,  the  average  experience  of 
'respectable,  Christian'  men  in  New  England  afforded 
a  norm  which  few,  if  any,  in  the  colleges  at  all  events, 
dreamed  of  questioning.  Thus,  no  thorough  assault 
upon  fundamental  problems  could  occur  and,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  none  did  occur. 

But  this  combination  of  circumstances  seems  to  have 
affected  the  philosophical  teaching  chiefly,  and  must  by 
no  means  be  taken  in  derogation  of  the  general  situation 
in  the  New  England  colleges  of  the  time.     For  it  is 
apparent  that   the  Arts   course   had   its   own   distinct 
merits.     On  the  whole,  students  were  well  served,  some- 
times admirably,  as,  for  example,  in  Greek  at  Dartmouth. 
They  attained  a  certain  skill  on  what  we  may  call  the 
rhetorical  side.     That  is  to  say,  they  had  opportunities 
to  acquire  literary  information,  and  to  make  considerable 
progress  in  the  art  of  expression.     A  most  creditable 
paper  by  Morris,  The  Nature  of  Poetry,  lies  before  me. 
It  was  prepared  for  and  read  before  the  Psi  Upsilon 
Chapter;  and  internal  evidence  shows  that  this  kind  of 
'exercise'   constituted  the  main,   if  not  the  exclusive, 
concern    at    meetings    of    the    Fraternity.     Evidently, 
eating,    sleeping,    house-parties,    and    'peanut'    poHtics 
had  not  attained  their  present  and  vast  importance! 
Another    paper,    belonging    to    the    same   period, — the 
Senior    year, — Philosophy    before    Bacon,    proves    that 
Morris  had  adequate  information,  as  scholarship  then 
went,    about    Graeco-Roman     thought,    although    his 
teachers  had  aroused  no  suspicion  in  him  of  its  bearing 
upon  his  own  actual  thinking.     The  account  of  Plato, 
for  instance,  is  entirely  external,  and  marked  by  gross 


I 


198 


THE  LIFE   AND  WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


199 


misconceptions,  especially  about  the  Theory  of  Ideas. 
Further,  undergraduates  were  not  only  left  free  to  read 
what  they  pleased,  but  encouraged  to  acquaint  them- 
selves with  the  works  of  the  great  writers,  past  and 
present,  irrespective  of  the  views  urged.     In  brief,  their 
powers  of  acquisition  and  expression  were  disciplined, 
although  original  thinking  was  not  emphasized,  and  so 
their   conventional    ideas    of   life   remained   unaltered. 
They  came  to  college  with  a  purview,  and  left,  knowmg 
not  what  manner  of  men  they  were.     No  doubt,  Amer- 
ican political  prepossessions,  and  the  false  emphasis  laid 
upon  'freedom'  by  the  great  controversy  of  the  hour, 
also  conspired  to  this  end.     In  any  event,  deeper  problems 
were  postponed,  —  inevitably,  perhaps.     Symptomati- 
cally,  then,  Morris  appears  to  have  been  affected  much 
more  by  his  teachers  of  Greek  and  mathematics  than  by 
the  philosophical  professors.     He  acquired  much,  but  he 
thought  little,  and  this  quite  conventionally. 

The  materials  available  to  throw  light  upon  his 
attitude  during  the  period  between  the  close  of  the 
>  college  course  and  the  enlistment  in  the  United  States 
Volunteers  are  scanty,  unfortunately.  Yet,  one  long 
passage  from  the  Journal;  two  short  papers,  Truth  and 
Joseph  Garibaldi;  and  two  lectures,  on  Astronomy  and 
Geology,  composed  and  delivered  at  Royalton,  confirm 
wholly  the  conclusions  just  stated  above.  The  entry  in 
the  Journal  illustrates,  with  great  force,  how  completely 
Professor  Noyes  had  fallen  victim  to  the  apologetic 
distortion  of  the  Reformed  Theology,  and  how  unsus- 
pectingly his  best  pupil  accepted  the  professorial  version 
for  gospel.  And,  as  we  shall  see,  the  Royalton  addresses, 
written  more  than  two  years  later,  and  after  a  wider 
study  of  the  physical  sciences  than  was  usual  then,  are 
to  the  same  effect. 


Morris,  after  detailing  the  subjects  on  which  he  has 
been  engaged,  proceeds  to  remark,  in  the  Journal: 

"One  of  the  most  profitable  and  interesting  branches  has 
been  that  of  Natural  Theology.  Paley's  work  is  the  textbook 
which  the  class  used.  But,  in  examination,  that  was  not  made 
the  basis  of  operations  so  much  as  some  topics'  given  out  by 
Prof.  Noyes — all  connected  with  the  subject  of  the  Existence  of 
God  as  proved  from  geology  in  particular  and  nature  in  general. 
These  topics  had  some  reference  to  Paley's  Treatise,  but  con- 
sisted mostly  of  arguments  for  the  Divine  Existence  drawTi  from 
the  sources  above  mentioned,  and  fully  stated  and  drawn  out  in 
various  works,  such  as  Hitchcock's  ''Religion  of  Geology," 
Brougham's  ''Essay  on  Natural  Theology,"  the  Writings  of 
John  Foster,  etc. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Prof.  Noyes,  I  obtained  a  copy  of  the 
"Religion  of  Geology"  a  few  days  before  the  examination  took 
place,  and  found  it  to  be  a  most  profitable  and  interesting  work. 
If  people  would  only  study,  and  know  how  things  are,  having  a 
right  disposition  and  a  useful  aim,  I  am  sure  there  would  not 
need  to  be  so  much  ignorance  and  doubt  in  regard  to  the  truth  of 
great  doctrines,  and  such  as  are  of  vital  importance.  '  Ignorance 
is  bhss,'  you  say,  perhaps;  but  hard-earned  knowledge  is  much 
more  than  that;  and,  without  doubt,  one  of  the  chief  delights  of 
glorified  spirits  is  derived  from  the  fact  of  their  vast  increase  of 
knowledge.  And  yet  we  do  not  say  that  the  possession  of  knowl- 
edge, in  itself  considered,  is  the  realisation  of  the  blessedness  of 
heaven.  Far  from  it.  For,  in  that  case,  the  most  godless  man, 
provided  he  be  one  of  great  knowledge,  would  necessarily  be 
supposed  to  have  in  the  present  life  a  '  foretaste '  of  eternal  bliss. 
But  there  is  a  satisfaction  and  a  pleasure  in  the  possession  of 
knowledge,  although  it  may  be  lost  to  some  extent,  in  this  life, 
through  the  effects  of  sin,  and  a  diseased  heart  and  blinded 
conscience.  .  .  .  Knowledge  will  thus  become  what  it  will 
become  here,  so  far  as  polluted  human  nature  will  allow, — the 
medium  of  increasing  felicity — a  felicity  more  boundless  even 
than  the  realms  of  knowledge." 

He  then  goes  on  to  reflect  upon  the  necessity  laid 
upon  the  Christian  to  study  the  evidences  for  his  "  dearest 
hopes,"  and  continues: 


200 


THE  LIFE  AND    WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


201 


"Now,  of  course,  I  am  unable  to  say  from  my  own  knowledge 
how  much  that  may  be  learned  outside  of  revelation  with  respect 
to  God's  Existence  and  His  Eternal  Laws  has  already  been 
learned;  but  I  do  know,  from  reading  such  works  as  that  of 
Hitchcock  already  referred  to,  that  much  that  is  important  has 
been  discovered;  and  I  know,  too,  that  the  possession  of  these 
discovered  and  attested  facts  has  a  tendency  to  enUghten  one's 
Christian  faith,  and  to  make  it  stronger  and  clearer.  These 
facts,  too,  are  of  a  general  and  comprehensive  kind,  to  a  great 
extent,  having  relation  to  the  everywhere  existing  laws  of  nature, 
to  the  testimony  of  the  rocks,  and  the  ways  of  God  upon  earth. 
They  are  well  worth  knowing,  and  I  am  glad  that  the  subject  of 
Natural  Theology  has  been  made  a  regular  branch  of  study  for 
students  at  Hanover.  .  .  .  Prof.  Noyes  has  entered  into  the 
work  with  considerable  earnestness,  and  has  shown  a  sincere 
desire  to  affect  the  consciences  of  the  students,  and  bring  their 
hearts  to  a  state  of  peace  with  God." 

In  strange  contrast  with  these  "eccentric  gesticulations 
in  a  wind  of  our  own  raising,"  as  Stirling  calls  them*  is 
the  Platonizing  tendency  of  the  following,  taken  from 
the  brief  paper  on  Truth,  written,  be  it  remarked,  only 
six  weeks  later! 

''All  men  are  agreed  as  to  what  Truth,  as  an  abstract  quality, 
'is;  but,  as  to  what  is  truth,  in  a  given  case,  nothing  but  the  irre- 
sistible evidence  of  facts,  or  an  express  revelation  from  heaven, 
has  ever  been  found,  in  the  present  state  of  things,  to  cause  men 
to  agree.  ...  We  will  use  the  word  truth  in  this  connection, 
not  in  its  minor  relations  to  and  dependence  upon  changeable 
facts,  but  as  existing  abstractly,  and  not  necessarily  connected 
with  that  which  exists  physically.  .  .  .  The  two  most  important 
attributes  of  Truth  are  its  unchangeableness  and  illimitedness. 
....  It  has  its  habitation  at  the  throne  of  the  Eternal  God. 
It  constitutes  one  of  God's  brightest  and  most  glorious  ornaments 
and  is  coeval  with  Him,  existing  from  eternity  to  eternity.  .  .  . 
We  must  consider  it  as  the  necessary  basis  for  all  earthly  or 
human  stabihty,  and  much  more  as  the  foundation  of  our  im- 
mortal hopes." 

*  The  Secret  of  Hegel,  Vol.  I.,  p.  xliii. 


Evidently,  Morris  harbours  not  the  faintest  suspicion 
of  the  lurking  contradiction  between  the  two  pronounce- 
ments. It  has  never  occurred  to  him  that  the  methods 
proper  to  treatment  of  determinate  physical  phenomena 
avail  us  nothing  to  reach  ultimate  reality.  In  other 
words,  he  is  guiltless  of  philosophical  system,  and  without 
clear  appreciation  of  the  aims  of  science.  Hence,  no 
doubt,  the  confusion  and  pain  he  was  destined  to  endure 
afterwards. 

This  innocent  postponement  of  fundamental  questions, 
and  no  less  innocent  attitude  towards  the  implications 
of  science,  receive  farther  illustration  from  the  Royalton 
lectures.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  science 
still  occupied  a  very  secondary  position  in  the  college 
curriculum,  was,  in  fact,  the  merest  incident;  and  that, 
although  Morris  learned  a  good  deal  about  the  para- 
phernalia of  observational  astronomy,  thanks  to  his 
two  years'  residence  in  the  Shattuck  Observatory,  he 
could  not  well  escape  the  general  atmosphere  of  indif- 
ference and,  even,  ignorance.  The  following,  almost 
the  last  entry  in  his  college  Journal,  affords  food  for  ap- 
posite reflection: 


(< 


Mr.  John  Lord,  Clergyman,  has  been  delivering  a  course 
of  Lectures  on  the  Representatives  of  Modern  Civilization. 
Those  on  Galileo,  Lord  Bacon,  and  Pascal  were  particularly 
fine.  In  the  first  he  expended  his  powers  of  sarcasm  on  the 
'Bread  and  Butter'  Sciences,  mentioning  especially  Chemistry 
and  Geology,  much  to  the  disgust  of  certain  devotees  of  those 
departments  of  knowledge.  One  of  them,  my  classmate  Hoyt, 
was  stimulated  thereby  to  write  his  Commencement  Oration  on 
a  subject  thus  suggested — 'The  Relation  of  Science  to  Religion ' — 
taking  a  position  opposite  to  that  of  the  lecturer.  For  my  part, 
I  am  glad  to  see  men  that  make  a  hobby  of  their  scientific  studies 
occasionally  rebuked." 


l! 


202 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


Mr.  John  Lord,  Clergyman,  as  the  natural  expert 
authority  upon  the  history  of  scientific  discovery; 
science  itself  as  implying  nothing  more  than  "  bread  and 
butter";  and  devotion  to  science  as  an  insidious  fad 
needing  hebdomadal  rebuke — these  be  thoroughly  char- 
acteristic misconceptions.  Science,  as  the  handmaid 
of  something  else,  was  all  very  well;  but  science  for  its 
own  sake  had  not  yet  swung  into  the  visible  heavens.' 
Hence,  the  tone  of  the  Royalton  addresses  is  at  once 
genuine  and  informing.  The  lecture  on  Astronomy 
gives  a  careful  and  correct  account  of  the  aims  of  astro- 
nomical observation,  and  a  clear  description  of  the  instru- 
ments then  in  use,  but  with  symptomatic  lapses  into 
the  edifying.     The  great  age  of  the  science  is  asserted. 

"The  fact  that  several  of  the  stellar  constellations  are  mentioned 
by  Greek  writers  who  lived  one  thousand  years  before  Christ, 
and  some  by  Job  whom  chronology  places  five  hundred  years 
earUer  than  these,  testifies  to  its  early  existence." 

Job  in  1500  B.  C.  is,  of  course,  a  theological  phantasy, 
but  the  scriptures  must  be  upheld!  This  passage 
typifies  the  general  outlook. 

"The  sun  is  not  only  the  chief  source  of  influence  in  the  solar 
kingdom,  but  is  asserted  on  high  authority  to  be  itself  revolving 
about  a  centre  that  has  been  designated,  and  in  a  circle  of  vast 
diameter.  Thus  we  have  the  earth  attended  by  a  moon  that 
revolves  about  it — the  same  being  true  of  several  other  planets, — 
we  have  the  planets,  with  their  attendants,  revolving  about  the 
sun,  and  the  sun  about  some  other  centre;  leading  to  the  magnifi- 
cent generalisation  of  a  certain  philosopher,  that  each  centre,  with 
its  system,  rotates  about  a  still  more  powerful  focus,  till  the  whole 
universe  is  included  in  one  vast  system  of  systems,  moving,  one  vast 
stupendous  whole,  in  obedient  regularity  about  the  throne  of  the 
Omnipotent  Himself." 

Curious  notions  about  the  history  of  religion  crop  out. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


203 


"There  is  strong  evidence  that  the  sun  is  the  first  body  that 
received  divine  honors  from  men  after  the  worship  of  the  true 
God  was  forsaken." 

But,  "verily,  the  sun  is,  to  human  apprehension, 
godlike,  and  depraved  humanity  may  be  looked  upon 
with  greater  charity  (though  not  pardoned)  for  rendering 
him  supreme  homage."  Poor  Zoroaster!  One  of  the 
main  **uses"  of  astronomy  is 

"in  developing  the  sentiment  of  morality,  and  in  strengthening 
rehgious  impressions.  .  .  .  The  visible  universe  constitutes  a 
standing  argument  to  demonstrate  the  glory  and  power  of  the 
Creator.  A  correct  appreciation  of  its  vastness  and  undisturbed 
order,  together  with  its  marks  of  exquisite  design,  strengthens 
in  the  mind  the  belief  in  the  Deity.  As  this  sentiment  gains 
ground,  the  sense  of  obligation  increases.  The  sense  of  personal 
consequence  is  diminished.  The  feeUng  of  subjection  to  the 
control  of  an  Infinite  Power  is  increased." 

As  one  might  anticipate,  the  lecture  on  Geology  em- 
phasizes even  more  the  *  utility'  of  Natural  Theology, 
although,  at  the  same  time,  it  offers  a  fair,  if  somewhat 
inaccurate,  account  of  the  results  of  geological  investig- 
ation. Two  points  are  worthy  of  special  note.  Morris 
afl[irms; 

"It  is  proved  that  the  earth  is  not  6,000  years  of  age  merely, 
but  has  existed  for  myriads  of  centuries.  Man  may  not  have 
seen  fight  till  the  period  indicated  by  the  Mosaic  record,  but  the 
earth  must  have  existed,  and  been  the  abode  of  organized  exist- 
ences, long  before  the  noble  thought  of  God  gave  itself  expression 
in  the  creation  of  Man." 

But  he  hastens  to  add, 

"If  any  one  is  disposed  to  inquire  how  this  can  harmonise 
with  the  account  of  the  creation  furnished  in  Genesis,  I  have 
only  to  say  that  the  facts  of  Geology  do  not  conflict  with  a  fair 
and  inteUigent  interpretation  of  the  sacred  canon.    Nor  do  they 


1 


204 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


diminish  in  the  least  the  respect  and  reverence  due  to  the  word 
of  God,  or  the  authority  of  its  teachings.  Particular  explanation 
of  this  point  cannot  now  with  propriety  and  convenience  be 
given." 

Again,  he  admits  the  evidence  for  Evolution.* 

"It  is  shown  in  Geology  that  the  earth,  previous  to  the  intro- 
duction of  man  upon  this  sphere,  was  inhabited  by  several  races 
of  beings  succeeding  each  other  in  the  scale  of  their  comparative 
development  and  nearness  to  man  in  structure.  .  .  .  Those 
faculties  which  are  brought  to  a  comparatively  complete  stage 
of  development  in  man,  are,  therefore,  to  be  considered  as  having 
existed  embryonically  in  birds,  fishes,  reptiles  and  creeping 
things  before  man,  as  such,  ever  saw  the  hght.  Geology  teaches 
that  change  is  the  law  of  terrestrial,  as  well  as  of  all  created 
things.  The  earth  is  not  now  as  it  has  been,  or  as  it  will  be.  .  .  . 
Before  the  final  catastrophe  of  a  destroyed  world  shall  take  place, 
as  predicted  in  the  unalterable  word  of  God,  vast  alterations 
may  take  place  in  the  physical  condition  of  the  globe." 

Nevertheless,  as  before,  he  hastens  to  add: 

"Nothing  material  can  interest  the  mind  save  as  significant 
of  what  some  designing  intellect  has  formed.  .  .  .  The  infinite 
variety  of  signs  of  benevolence  and  will,  now  impressed  indelibly 
upon  the  face  of  nature,  would  not  exist  to  excite  our  interest, 
and  occupy  our  thoughts  .  .  .  unless  we  recognised  God's 
hand  in  the  world  around  us.  It  befits  not  an  immortal  being  to 
become  so  oblivious  of  the  most  important  realities,  through 
devotion  to  present  gratification,  or  through  heedlessness,  as  to 
ignore  the  Omnipotent  finger  that  has  inscribed  upon  every 
created  object  the  lesson  of  God's  government,  and  our  own 
dependence." 

And  he  concludes: 

"View  God  in  everything — in  the  sea  and  the  land,  in  the 
hills  and  the  valleys,  in  the  volcano  and  the  earthquake — an 
omnipotent  and  beneficent  Deity!" 

*  Cf.  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism,  Woodbridge 
Riley,  pp.  194  f.,  206  f. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


205 


Once  more,  the  apposition  has  escaped  him  and, 
sooner  or  later,  the  unstable  equilibrium  is  bound  to 
be  upset. 

Finally,  the  essay  on  Garibaldi  serves  to  show  that, 
like  his  countrymen  generally,  Morris  was  preoccupied 
by  an  individualistic  political  theory,  which  he  regarded 
as  a  species  of  final  revelation.  So,  at  the  time,  the 
politico-social  problem  had  come  to  him  solved.  On  the 
whole,  he  is  not  much  given  to  high-flying.  But,  on 
this  occasion,  he  aviates  with  the  Bird  of  Freedom! 

"Upon  the  day  when  the  American  People  are  jubilantly 
celebrating  the  thirtieth  anniversary  of  Independence  declared 
and  Civil  Liberty  ensured,  in  the  city  of  Nice,  lately  ceded  to 
France,  fortune  favored  a  sea-faring  man  by  bestowing  on  him 
a  son.  .  .  .  The  spirit  of  freedom  which  the  occupation  of  his 
early  life  undoubtedly  inspired  in  him,  when  he  was  accustomed 
to  look  with  impassioned  delight  upon  the  blue  expanse  of  waters, 
and  watch  the  gentle  ripphng  of  the  lightly  rolling  surface,  or 
gaze  with  appropriate  awe  upon  the  unrestrained  fury  of  the 
tempestuous  waves,  this  spirit  of  freedom,  I  say,  doubtless 
influenced  strongly,  although,  perhaps,  on  his  part,  unconsciously 
the  feelings  and  principles  of  his  later  life.  ...  Is  not  this  man, 
then,  worthy  of  his  present  honorable  position  as  commander 
of  the  united  forces  of  what  were  formerly  separate  states,  now 
joined  under  the  King  of  Sardinia,  for  the  maintenance  of  their 
Constitutional  Rights?  ...  In  Lower  Italy  he  stands  forth 
to-day  as  the  acknowledged  leader  of  all  aspirants  for  Civil  and 
Religious  Liberty.  .  .  .  May  God  grant  him  success  in  his 
present  attempt,  to  deliver  from  bondage  a  people  of  superior 
and  classic  lineage,  and  to  rescue  from  further  defilement  by 
tyranny  a  land  of  illustrious  historical  associations!" 

It  has  been  well  said,  that  "  every  man  w^ho  rises  above 
the  common  level  has  received  tw^o  educations:  the 
first  from  his  teachers;  the  second,  more  personal  and 
important,    from    himself."    This    *  second    education' 


206 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


preponderated  with  Morris.  We  have  tried  to  analyze 
the  'first.'  From  now  on,  we  are  concerned  more  with 
the  'second.'  For,  despite  the  influence  of  H.  B.  Smith 
and  Trendelenburg,  Morris  never  called  any  man  master. 
Through  a  full  decade,  materials  fail  us,  and  the  best 
we  can  obtain  must  come  by  way  of  inference.  Nor  is 
inference,  however  unsatisfactory,  altogether  hopeless. 
For,  it  is  certain  that  the  'first  education'— by  the 
New  England  conscience  and  by  teachers— remained 
the  terminus  a  quo  throughout  the  period  of  transition. 

2.   Transition 

There  is  no  evidence  that,  during  the  years  of  service 
in  the  army  and  as  tutor  at  Dartmouth,  the  views  with 
which  Morris  left  college  underwent  change.  On  the 
contrary,  such  documentary  scraps  as  we  possess  indicate 
that  without  any  qualms  of  conscience  he  held  to  his 
original  intention,  of  preparation  for  the  ministry  of 
the  Congregational  church.  It  is  doubtless  true  that 
experiences  in  camp  acquainted  him  with  a  side  of  human 
nature  in  strong  contrast  to  that  familiar  in  the  sheltered 
life  of  rural  New  England.  This  has  been  considered 
sufficiently  above.  But  the  testimony  of  pupils  at 
Dartmouth  proves  that  he  returned  to  the  College 
unaffected  substantially,  so  far  as  others  could  observe. 
Nor  were  they  wrong;  the  resolution  to  proceed  to 
Union  Theological  Seminary  is  of  itself  decisive  on  this 
point.  It  is  more  than  probable,  therefore,  that  the 
first  signs  of  coming  stress  manifested  themselves  in  the 
seminary  period.  The  hints  dropped  by  fellow-students, 
as  we  have  seen  already,  confirm  this  inference. 

No  direct  clue  exists  to  the  reasons  for  Morris's 
spiritual  unrest  as  it  showed  itself  in  the  second  year  of 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


207 


his  seminary  course  particularly.  Yet,  his  previous 
mental  history  supports  the  conclusion,  that  his  extensive 
and  most  varied  reading,  over  a  term  of  more  than  six 
years,  had  asserted  its  effect  at  length.  The  youth 
had  been  led  to  admit  at  least  a  possible  attitude  towards 
the  meaning  of  life  in  violent  contrast  to  the  doctrines 
of  his  nurture.  We  should  remember  that  these  were 
the  days  of  that  great  intellectual  awakening,  revolu- 
tionary in  character,  now  known  as  the  method  of 
science,  critical  and  natural.  And  many  indications, 
pointing  as  if  by  concerted  plan  in  the  same  direction, 
must  have  led  an  acute  youth  to  observe  that  some 
cherished  convictions,  central  to  his  home-made  creed, 
w^ere  under  serious  fire.  Moreover,  he  had  not  come 
by  the  newer  views  through  the  discipline  of  the  labora- 
tory, with  its  sober  restriction  to  objects  than  can  be 
weighed,  measured  or  numbered.  He  had  stumbled 
upon  them  in  works,  often  semi-popular  and  of  general 
interest,  where  much  metaphysic,  indifferent  or  bad, 
was  mixed  crudely  with  valuable  matter  of  no  meta- 
physical import.  In  short,  he  found  himself,  almost 
unarmed,  amid  the  onrush  of  the  battalions  of  half- 
truths  and  half-absurdities  that  marked  the  fifteen 
years  after  The  Origin  of  Species;  when  the  eighteenth 
century  apologetic,  attacked  on  its  own  ground  with 
modern  weapons,  went  down  to  utter  disaster. 

He  knew  something  of  Comte  as  interpreted  by  Lewies 
and  Mill.  He  had  encountered  a  foe,  almost  within 
the  gates,  in  Bushnell.  He  was  familiar  with  Hamilton 
and  Mansel,  the  advance  agents  of  Spencer.  He  had 
read  Essays  and  Reviews,  Draper,  Renan,  and  John  Mill. 
"Preconceived  law%"  as  Calvinists  understood  it,  and  a 
"perfecting    principle,"    in    the    Aristotelian    sense,    if 


208 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


209 


brought  down  to  traffic  with  physical  phenomena,  as 
the  Design  men  had  brought  them  down,  could  hardly  be 
expected  to  survive  the  evidence,  arranged  now  on  such 
a  scale  that  the  old  position  was  outflanked  completely. 
It  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  Morris  was  in  no  state  to 
foresee  the  issue;  but  it  is  nevertheless  unquestionable 
that  he  sensed  grave  trouble  and  experienced  disheart- 
ening  qualms.     In   these   circumstances,    Smith,    from 
all  we  know  of  him,  was  the  very  man  who  might  have 
saved  the  day.     The  fact  is,  that  he  did  not;  nay,  that 
he   abandoned  the  effort,   advising  Morris  to  forsake 
theology  and  present  plans  of  preparation  for  the  minist- 
ry, and  to  hie  him  to  Germany,  where  Ulrici  and  Tren- 
delenburg might  furnish  weapons  to  counter  this  strange 
enemy.     Accordingly,  we  are  driven  to  ask.  Why  did 
Smith  fail?     And  we  must  reply;  First,   and  mainly, 
because  he  himself  did  not  belong  to  the  epoch  just 
opening,  and  so  proved  unable  to  meet  the  vital  problem; 
second,  because  the  inevitable  atmosphere  of  a  theolog- 
ical seminary  then  did  little  to  support  his  influence, 
much  to  limit  it.     This  may  be  said,  too,  without  casting 
the  slightest  reflection  upon  the  man  or  the  institution. 
The   large,    irresistible   movement .  of   the   second   half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  was  beginning  to  sweep  Morris 
away.     Nothing  but  first-hand  commerce  with  it  could 
suffice  to  satisfy  a  thinker.     A  decade  of  struggle  lay 
ahead;  and,  even  then,  sure  footing  was  not  to  be  at- 
tained. 

The  situation  in  which  Morris  found  himself,  little 
as  it  may  have  affected  the  average  seminarian  of  fifty 
years  ago,  was  not  by  any  means  unusual.  Its  home- 
thrusting  difficulty  has  stricken  able  men  time  and  again 
down  the  centuries,  although  at  no  period  more  severely, 


perhaps,  than  during  the  first  onset  of  modern  science. 
And,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  its  tremendous  issues 
have  loomed  largest  with  religious  believers,  particularly 
those  who,  like  Morris,  had  enjoyed  a  calm  season  of 
serene  faith.  So  much  so,  indeed,  that  the  most  apposite 
statements  of  it  come  from  two  eminent  theologians  of 
the  last  generation.  Despite  their  sharp  antagonism 
otherwise,  they  agree  here.     Thus,  Albrecht  Ritschl  says: 

"On  the  one  hand,  man  as  a  spiritual  being  claims  to  be  of 
greater  worth  than  the  whole  natural  system;  and,  on  the  other, 
finds  that  he  is  cribbed,  cabined  and  subjected  by  the  latter."* 

While  his  opponent.  Otto  Pfleiderer,  declares,  with 
no  less  insight: 

''The  reconciliation  of  our  present  knowledge  of  nature  and 
history  with  the  religious  faith  handed  down  in  the  Church,  and 
imparted  to  us  in  our  education,  will  remain  in  the  future  the 
perpetual  problem  of  theology."! 

Why,  then,  did  the  instruction  at  Union  Seminary, 
especially  that  of  Henry  Boynton  Smith,  the  most 
influential  and  competent  member  of  the  staff,  fail  to 
deliver  Morris  from  the  dilemma? 

Smith  was  the  first  of  the  great  succession  of  New 
England  theologians  to  come  into  intimate  contact  with 
modern  German  thought  and,  in  a  measure,  to  master 
its  implications,  freeing  himself  from  the  Scottish  philo- 
sophy, t  But  despite  interest  and  no  little  facility  in 
pure  philosophy,  the  theological  standpoint  always 
dominated  him.     The  frequency  with  which  he  charact- 

*  Drei  akademische  Reden,  p.  10. 

t  The  Development  of  Theology  in  Germany  since  Kant,  and  its  Progress 
in  Great  Britain  since  1825,  p.  205  (1st  ed.). 

t  Of.  A  Genetic  History  of  New  England  Theology,  F.  H.  Foster,  pp. 
439  f.;  "  Review  of  Upham's  M.ental  Philosophy,"  H.  B.  Smith,  Literary 
and  Theological  Review,  pp.  621  f.  (1837). 
14 


M 


210 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


211 


ii 


erizes    the    thoroughgoing     philosophical     systems    as 
"pantheistic"  is  significant.    Accordingly,  visiting  Ger- 
many for  the  first  time  in  1838,  he  was  led  to  regard  the 
'mediating  theology'  of  Schleiermacher,  then  in  posses- 
sion at  Halle  and  Berlin,  where  he  studied,  as  the  main 
phenomenon.     In  addition,  the  Hegelian  school  was  in 
process  of  dissolution,  and  a  reaction  against  the  specul- 
ative systems  had  begun;   they  were  already  under  fire 
from  Ulrici  and  Trendelenburg.     Smith  lived  with  the 
former,  and  knew^  the  latter  well.     ^Moreover,  theological 
circles   were   agog   over    The  Life  of  Jesus,    Critically 
Examined,  by  D.  F.  Strauss,  the  enfant  terrible  of  the 
moment,  who,  thanks  to  the  panic  he  created,*  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind,  exerted  enormous  influence  in  leading 
his  opponents— among  whom  were  Smith's  friends  and 
teachers— into   bypaths.    Affectionate   friendship   with 
Tholuck,  a  delightful  but  mystic  soul,t  and  intercourse 
with  Neander,  served  to  confirm  Smith  farther  in  the 
'conciliation'  eclecticism  of  the  Schleiermacher  group. 
Thus  his  chief  concern  naturally  became,  and  always 
remained,  the  relation  between  faith  and  philosophy, 
their  union  the  end  in  view,  without,  however,  a  reasoned 
philosophical   system   upon  which   he   could   draw   for 
principles  such  as  might  have  enabled  him  to  think  the 
problem  through  to  the  bitter  end.     Consequently,  he 
spent    his    mental    strength    in    a    continuous    double- 
refraction  process,  itself  the  outcome  of  a  false  abstrac- 
tion between  two  indissoluble  sides  of  human  experience. 
Introducing  into  the  doctrines  brought  from  Germany 
an  important  objective  element  obtained  from  the  Calvin- 
ism of  the  New  England  succession,— from  which  he 

*  Of.  The  Quest  of  the  Historical  Jesus,  a  Critical  Study  of  its  Progress 
from  Reimarus  to  Wrede,  Albert  Schweitzer,  Chap.  ix. 
t  Of.  above,  pp.  99,  110,  195. 


never  wavered, — he  recognized  the  urgent  need  for  a 
first  principle  or  'fundamental  norm'  in  theology. 
Thanks  to  this,  he  was  able  to  correct  to  some  extent 
Schleiermacher 's  weak  treatment  of  the  justice  of  God 
in  the  work  of  redemption,  and  to  illuminate  his  inade- 
quate conception  of  personality.  Notwithstanding, 
having  enunciated  the  necessity  for  a  principle,  he  did 
not  apply  it,  and  failed  to  free  himself  from  Protestant 
subjectivity,  in  which,  after  the  manner  of  Schleier- 
macher, he  took  refuge  when  hard  pressed.  He  says, 
characteristically,  "Rome  does  not  know  how  to  recon- 
cile Christianity  with  popular  right,  nor  reason  with 
revelation."*  The  judgment  of  Pfleiderer  upon  the 
German  disciples  of  Schleiermacher  applies  most  aptly 
to  Smith. 

*'In  the  case  of  the  majority,  the  requirements  of  their  per- 
sonal devout  feeling,  and  still  more  regard  to  the  real  or  supposed 
wants  of  the  churches,  prevailed  to  such  an  extent  as  to  lead 
them  to  put  on  one  side  the  critical  element  in  the  theology  of 
Schleiermacher,  and  to  use  his  formulae  rather  for  the  purpose 
of  hiding  or  modifying  the  difficulties  of  the  supranaturalistic 
theology  than  to  encourage  them  to  advance  beyond  the  old 
standpoint  along  the  new  paths  of  the  master."! 

Asserting  that  faith  "is  perfectly  rational,"^  Smith 
nevertheless  flouts  all  attempts  to  refer  it  to  philosophical 
first  principles,  because,  paradoxically,  he  himself  still 
remains  in  large  degree  under  the  spell  of  Deistic  ration- 
alism, a  trait  of  the  positive  Vermittlungstheologie  as  a 
whole.  §     Accordingly,  when  confronted  with  the  bad, 

*  Faith  and  Philosophy,  Discourses  and  Essays,  p.  82. 
t  The  Development  of  Theology  in  Germany  since  Kant,  p.  122  (1st  ed.). 
t  Faith  and  Philosophy,  p.  14. 

§  This  appears  plainly  throughout  his  Apologetics,  A  Course  of  Lect- 
ures (edited  by  William  S.  Karr,  1882),  and  in  the  third  Appendix  to  the 


212 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


213 


or  naive,  metaphysics  of  the  'natural  philosophers/  he 
fell  back  upon  positions  scarcely  less  uncritical  than  those 
adopted  by  Draper  and  the  early  Darwinian  exhorters. 
His  printed  remains  prove  him  to  have  been  a  singularly 
accomplished   man,    of   unusual   mental   receptivity  — 
except  to  the  factual  methods  of  natural  science  and,  in 
lesser   measure,    to   the   logical   rigorism   of   the   post- 
Kantians.     Despite  the  opinion  of  Dr.  F.  H.  Hedge,— 
''I  believe  you  are  better  acquainted  with  Hegel  than 
any  one  else  in  this  country,"*  —  the  brief  excursus, 
contributed  by  Smith  to  Hedge's  '  specimens,' and  his 
article  in  Appleton's  Cyclopoedia,  suffice  to  show  that  he 
saw  Hegel  from  the  outside,  t     The  reason  is  obvious,  and 
it  cannot  but  have  weighed  much  in  his  dealings  with 
Morris.    Like  others.  Smith  was  thoroughly  scared  by 
the  developments  in  the  so-called  Hegelian  left,  Strauss 
particularly.!     While  he  could  have  appreciated,  and 
countered  from  the  abundant  armoury  of  technical  theo- 
logy, the  violent  attack  made  by  Strauss  upon  Schleier- 
macher's  Life  of  Jesus,  in  the  Life  of  Jesus  for  the  German 
People,  §  he  was  in  no  position  to  appraise  the  profound 
truth  of  Strauss's  declaration,  published  one  year  later, 
in  direct  criticism  of  Schleiermacher's  posthumous  work. 

same  work,  "Outline  of  Professor  Smith's  Intended  Lectures  on  Evolu- 
tion." These  were  the  Ely  Lectures  at  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
which  Smith  did  not  live  to  prepare. 

*  Henry  B.  Smith,  His  Life  and  Work,  Edited  by  His  Wife,  p.  124. 

t  Prose  Writers  of  Germany,  Frederick  H.  Hedge  (Philadelphia,  1848). 
Smith's  excursus  and  translations  from  Hegel  are  to  be  found  at  pp.  446  f . 
The  American  Cyclopcedia,  article  Hegel,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  607  f.  This  is  a 
model  article,  admirably  informing,  and  is  still  of  great  value.  Its 
exposition  of  the  Hegelian  philosophy,  however,  is  external. 

t  Cf.  Faith  and  Philosophy,  pp.  443  f .,  where  Smith   misses  the  real 

issues. 

§  Introduction — Part  I. 


''Without  incurring  the  reproach  of  self-praise,  and  almost 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  I  can  now  say  that,  if  my  Life  of 
Jesus  had  not  appeared  within  a  year  of  Schleiermacher's  death, 
his  would  not  have  been  so  long  withheld.  Till  then  it  would 
have  been  hailed  by  the  theological  world  as  a  deliverer.  For 
the  wounds  which  my  work  inflicted  upon  the  theology  of  that 
day,  it  had  neither  palliative  nor  dressing.  Nay,  it  displayed 
the  author  as  in  a  measure  responsible  for  the  disaster,  for  the 
waters  which  he  had  admitted  drop  by  drop,  were  now  pouring 
in  like  a  flood,  in  defiance  of  his  prudential  reservations."* 

Inevitably,  then,  Smith  tends  to  dismiss  rigorous 
scientific  thinking  as  "materialism,"  rigorous  philo- 
sophical thinking  as  "pantheism";  a  procedure  that 
amounts  to  paying  himself  with  words.  For,  he  tells 
us  that  "Providence,  and  not  natural  law,  controls  the 
course  of  history  and  determines  the  destiny  of  the  race,"t 
unmindful  that,  whether  the  one  or  the  other  be  chosen, 
the  whole  problem  is  then  and  thereby  evaded. 

As  a  consequence,  unconscious  although  both  master 
and  pupil  may  have  been  at  the  time.  Smith  could  not 
face  the  problems  that  w^ere  beginning  to  disturb  Morris, 
and  his  teaching  cannot  w^ell  have  lacked  a  certain  air 
of  reality.  No  doubt,  too,  the  general  atmosphere  of 
the  Seminary  —  where,  as  we  are  told,  these  fundamental 
matters  were  not  taken  very  seriously  by  the  average 
student,    coupled    with    temporary    preoccupation    in 

*  When  Strauss  wrote  his  Life  of  1864,  he  knew  Schleiermacher's 
Lectures  on  the  Life  of  Jesus  only  from  MS.  notes  which  had  been  trans- 
mitted to  him.  After  the  publication  of  the  Lectures,  under  the  editor- 
ship of  Riitenick,  in  1864,  Strauss  wrote  a  direct  reply — Der  Christus  d. 
Glaubens  u.  d.  Jesus  d.  Geschichte;  eine  Kritik  d.  Lebens  Jesu  v.  Schleier^ 
macher  (1865) — from  which  I  quote. 

t  Faith  and  Philosophy,  p.  357.  An  excellent  criticism  of  the  defects 
of  the  kind  of  philosophy  professed  by  Smith  is  to  be  found  in  Philosophy 
and  Modern  Life,  J.  H.  Hyslop,  The  International  Quarterly,  Vol.  X., 
pp.  304-9. 


214 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


Abolitionism,  Teetotalism,  the  strife  between  the  'Old' 
and  'New'  Schools  in  American  Presbyterianism,  and 
so  forth,  —  served  to  heighten  this  impression.  Morris, 
having  lived  through  these  affairs,  could  afford  to  dis- 
count them,  and  had  come  to  feel  the  need  for  more 
elbow-room.  So  he  passed  on  to  Germany  where,  in 
his  turn,  he  became  a  pupil  of  Smith's  teachers,  Ulrici 
and  Trendelenburg,  who  had  gained  their  final  stand- 
point long  since  and  were,  in  a  fashion,  representative 
of  a  past  generation. 

As  far  as  it  is  now  possible  to  give  a  valid  opinion 
upon  these  subtle,  changing  states  of  mind,  it  seems 
altogether  likely  that  Morris  was  no  more  than  troubled, 
vexed  or  puzzled,  certainly  not  in  open  revolt.  And  we 
happen  to  be  aware,  from  surviving  friends,  that  he 
plumbed  the  deeps  of  scepticism  only  after  return  from 
Germany,  and  during  the  first  years  at  Michigan,  say, 
between  1868  and  1873. 

At  the  outset  of  his  European  Diary,  Morris  informs 
us  that  he  is  reading  Hodgson's  Time  and  Space*  His 
>  review  of  this  work,  published  in  April,  1867,  offers 
valuable  evidence  for  his  state  of  mind  at  the  close  of 
the  Seminary  episode,  and  before  he  came  into  contact 
with  German  scholarship.  It  is  true  that  the  side- 
lights are  mainly  negative.  But  they  serve  to  show 
that  the  full  stress  was  by  no  means  upon  him,  that  he 
was  not  in  revolt.  Besides,  they  intimate  positively 
that  such  standpoint  as  he  had  was  rather  theological 
than  philosophical,  as,  indeed,  might  be  anticipated. 
Little  wonder,  then,  that  the  discussion  of  Hodgson  is 
at  once  external  and  based  upon  dogmatic  preconcep- 

*  Time  and  Space,  A   Metaphysical  Essay,  Shadworth  H.  Hodgson 
(1832-1912). 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


215 


tions.  Morris  is  quite  innocent  of  the  influences  for- 
mative of  his  author.  He  is  unaware  that  Hodgson, 
a  mature  man  of  thirty-three  when  Time  and  Space 
appeared,  had  been  drawn  to  philosophy  by  overpowering 
domestic  sorrow,*  and  therefore  approached  the  subject 
with  emphatic  practical  bias,  which  the  wistfulness  of 
his  work  everywhere  betrays.  His  account  of  the 
parentage  of  the  book  misses  the  mark  widely. 

"It  contains,  in  fact,  sensationalism,  newly  worded  and  newly 
formalized.  Its  intellectual  parentage  is,  however,  not  so  much 
to  be  traced  to  such  men  as  Hume  and  Helvetius  as  to  Bacon 
and  Locke."t 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Hodgson's  fathers  after  the  spirit 
were  Coleridge,t  Ferrier,§  and  Kant.||  While  his 
method  was  that  of  Hume  who,  as  Hodgson  believed, 
could  be  outflanked  only  on  his  own  chosen  ground, 
Morris  was  also  blind  to  Hodgson's  originality,  and 
thus  content  to  dismiss  him  as  a  conventional  example 
of  the* insular  type  of  thinking,'  hereditary  from  Roger 
and  Francis  Bacon.  On  the  other  hand,  Morris,  still 
under  the  sway  of  Deistic  rationalism,  accepts  the  medi- 
aeval notion  of  causation,  which  Hodgson  dismisses  for 
scientific  reasons.  He  also  postulates  an  Absolute — 
making  this  identical  with  the  God  of  theology,  however, 
— while  Hodgson  excludes  this  entity,  for  ethical  reasons. 

''The  ideas  of  the  good,  power,  and  truth  are  ideas  of  the 
understanding,  the  subjective  aspect  of  them  shows  them  as 

*  Cf.  The  Dedication  to  his  Theory  of  Practice — '' Mortuis  Meis.'' 

t  The  American  Presbyterian  and  Theological  Review,  Vol.  V.  (New 
Series),  p.  217. 

J  Cf .  Hodgson's  Dedication  to  his  Philosophy  of  Reflection — "To 
Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  my  father  in  philosophy,  not  seen  but  beloved." 

§  Institutes  of  Metaphysic. 

II  "The  moral  law  within"  rather  than  "the  starry  heavens  above." 


216 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


ideas  of  the  reason,  or  modes  of  reflecting  consciousness.  .  .  . 
When  these  are  considered  as  united  in  one  Subject,  as  modes  of 
its  consciousness,  they  form  an  ideal  person,  and  this  ideal 
person  is  God."* 

Morris  is  completely  impervious  to  the  bearing  of  an 
argument  of  this  kind.  Moreover,  he  could  hardly  be 
expected  to  note  that  Hodgson  was  a  pragmatist  long 
before  the  first  pragmatist  in  the  United  States.  "  From 
the  vanity  of  speculation  there  is  no  refuge  but  in  ac- 
quiescing in  its  relative  nature,  and  accepting  truth  for 
what  it  is."t  He  might,  however,  have  evinced  sym- 
pathy for  Hodgson's  palpitating  ethicism.  But  he  does 
not;  thereby  intimating  that  his  own  problem  was  a 
theoretical  one  and  that,  meanwhile,  he  saw  no  solution 
for  it  save  in  theological  ontology.  Moreover,  he 
retains  one  trait  distinctive  of  his  youthful  outlook — a 
tendency  to  stamp  intellectual  opponents  as  sources  of 
moral  corruption.  The  characteristic  is  as  unpleasing 
as  Hodgson  was  undeserving  even  a  hint  of  the  flout- 
The  review,  then,  is  somewhat  jejune.  Further,  and 
more  important,  it  leaves  the  impression  as  of  one 
"whistling  in  the  dark,  to  keep  his  courage  up." 

What  we  have  been  able  to  adduce  so  far,  establishes 
several  points.  No  matter  how  strongly  Morris  may 
have  reacted  from  its  norms  of  conduct  and  its  theologic- 
al dogmas,  he  never  escaped  the  inbred  forces  of  the 
New  England  conscience.  In  minor  morals,  themselves 
of  little  moment,  he  freed  himself  so  that  he  tasted 
something  of  la  joie  de  vivre;  yet,  he  remained  ever  a 
Puritan  at  heart,  with  the  Puritan  eagerness  about 
ethical  questions.  Similarly,  while  he  drifted  from 
Calvinism,    the    problem    of    religion    always    retained 

*  Time  and  Space,  p.  574. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  588. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


217 


masterful  grip  upon  him.  Contact  with  German  culture 
was  not  destined  to  transform,  much  less  to  obliterate, 
his  hereditary  traits. 

So  far  as  I  am  able  to  infer,  after  careful  inquiry, 
European  study  affected  him  in  two  ways  principally— 
a  positive  and  a  negative.      Positively,  he  learned  the 
necessity  for  scholarship,  and  set  himself  to  master  the 
history    of    philosophy    grundlich.     Building    upon    an 
excellent  preparation  in  the  New  England  schools,  he 
came  to  possess   a  fund   of  philosophical  information 
equalled  by  few,  if  any,  of  his  countrymen  at  that  time. 
The  humane  spirit  of  Ulrici,  ranging  with  admirable 
catholicity   the   fields    of   literature,    law   and    natural 
science,  and  the  thorough,  methodical,  historical  accuracy 
of  Trendelenburg  gave  him  a  lead,  which  he  followed 
up  to  the  utmost  advantage  when  engaged  upon  the 
translation  of  Ueberweg.     Negatively,  he  obtained  no 
system  from  his  German  masters.     His  later  struggle 
with  scepticism  is  traceable,  in  part,  to  this,  w^hile  his 
evident  aflfiliation  with  the  British  Hegelians,  after  1880, 
attests  his  own  consciousness  of  the  need  to  bridge  the 
gap.     Thus,  his  German  residence  was  of  the  utmost 
importance  in  that  it  enabled  him,  a  decade  later,  to 
revert  to  the  great  Idealists  at  first  hand,  and  with 
definite  knowledge  of  the  issues.     Yet,  it  was  an  element 
in  his  preparation  only.     For,  at  the  moment,  so  far 
from  easing  his  doubts,  it   merely  punctuated  his  years 
of  transition.     Let  us  consider  the  situation  briefly! 

When  Morris  arrived  in  Halle,  Ulrici  was  a  man  of 
sixty,  his  best  work  done,  all  his  hostages  given  to  fortune. 
At  Berlin,  a  year  later,  he  found  in  Trendelenburg  a 
teacher  of  European  reputation  who  had  but  five  years 
to  live,  whose  greatest  book  had  been  before  the  public 


218 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


219 


for  nearly  a  generation.     Thus,  his  choice  of  professors, 
controlled   unquestionably   by   Smith,    was   lucky   and 
unlucky.     Lucky,     because    the    break    between    the 
Yankee  and  the  Teutonic  environments  was  neither  so 
violent  nor  radical  as  to  induce  anything  in  the  nature 
of  a  complete  overthrow.     Unlucky,  because  the  issues 
in  which  his  teachers  had  won  their  spurs  were  becoming 
what  Germans  call  'overpassed  standpoints,'  and  being 
replaced  by  others,  particularly  those   connected   with 
rising  Neo-Kantianism;  while,  too,  the  leadership  of  the 
important  group  to  which  Ulrici,  Trendelenburg  and 
Ueberweg  belonged,   in  a  mediating  type  of  thought, 
foot-loose  from  thoroughgoing  system,  had  been  chal- 
lenged successfully,  because  with  a  system,  by  a  greater 
than  they— in  the  person  of  Lotze.*     As  a  consequence, 
Morris  escaped  with  himself,  so  to  speak,  for  the  reason 
that  he  did  not  come  under  the  spell  of  a  potent,  seminal 
personality.     Ulrici,    although    a    rarely    accomplished 
man,  followed  his  age,  never  led  it;  and  Trendelenburg, 
while  a  historical  scholar  who  gave  place  to  Zeller  alone, 
was  an  organizing  and  administrative  far  more  than  a 
spiritual  power.     He  left  the  deeper  mark  upon  Morris, 
but  was  a  secondary,  not  a  primary  force.     Thanks  to 
him,  the  pupil  was  enabled  to  enter  the  difficult  company 
of    the    Fachgenossen,  not    persuaded    to   re-orient    his 

whole  being. 

For  better  or  for  worse,  Morris  found  German  thought 
well  started  upon  that  long  period  of  transition  which, 
beginning  about  1840,  still  continues.  But  the  per- 
sonnel of  his  teachers  and  friends  was  such  that  the 

*  This  may  be  dated  from  the  year  1857,  when  Lotze  published  his 
Streitschriften,  a  powerful  but  courteous  polemic— when  courtesy  was  all 
too  little  characteristic  of  German  polemics— upon  I.  H.  Fichte,  with 
whom  Ulrici  was  closely  and  Trendelenburg  partially  affiliated. 


anti-philosophical   implications    of   the  movement,  des- 
tined to  gain  ground  steadily  after  1870,  were  concealed 
from  him.     On  the  other  hand,  probably  without  real- 
ization of  the  fact,  he  was  wafted  back  to  the  pre- 
scientific    stage,   when    humanistic    problems— critical, 
literary  and  theological— predominated,   but  when,  at 
the    same    time,    confusion    had    succeeded    confident 
system-making.     Although   the   epithet   fails   to   cover 
all  the  factors,  we  approach  the  truth  if  we  say  that  he 
fell  into  the  Neo-Fichtean  circle;  and  this  was  eclectic, 
except  in  so  far  as  it  developed  too  soon  for  due  appre- 
ciation of  the  rigour  and  vigour  of  modern  natural-scien- 
tific methods,    with    their    attendant   presuppositions. 
Abjuring    Hegel,    even   to    the   extent    of    unmannerly 
petulance*  or  of  tripping  by  verbal  catches,t  this  group 
was  nevertheless  controlled  by  him,  willy-nilly.     For, 
its  parade  of  appeal  to   "experience"  took  the  form' 
either  of  an  objective  'psychologism'  or  of  a  historical 
'criticism^    alike   impossible   without   his    "substantial 
thoroughness,  which  penetrated  to  the  background  of 
things."t 

While  the  activities  of  Liebig  about  1826,  and  those 
of  A.  von  Humboldt  immediately  afterwards,  gave 
natural  science  a  position  unparalleled  in  Germany 
since  the  Wars  of  Religion,  it  was  not  till  the  discoveries 
of  Schleiden  and  Schwann  (1838-9),  and  especially  of 
Virchow  and  Helmholtz  ten  years  later,  that  the  realistic 
reaction  gathered  irresistible  force.  Thanks  to  Schelling 
and  his  disciples,  among  whom  were  many  important 

*  Cf.  Ueber  Princip  u.  Methode  d.  Hegelschen  Philosophic;  ein  Beitrag 
z.  Kritik  derselben,  H.  Ulrici  (1841). 

fCf.  Logische  Untersuchungen,  Bd.  I.,  pp.  22  f.  (1840),  and  Die 
logische  Frage  in  HegeVs  System  (1843),  A.  Trendelenburg. 

XZur  Geschichte  d.  neuesten  Theologie,  Cari  Schwarz,  p.  29  (3d  ed.). 


li 


220 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


men  of  science,*  Vitalism  held  sway,  and  Ulrici  in  par- 
ticular availed  himself  of  it,  to  palliate  difficulties. 
Unfortunately,  too,  as  we  still  have  good  reason  to  know, 
the  early  votaries  of  biological  inquiry,  misled  by  the 
mechanical  generalizations  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  rushed  headlong  into  a  popular 
philosophy  so  jejune  that  it  was  soon  fated  to  fall  an 
easy  prey  to  the  assaults  of  Neo-Kantianism.  Thus, 
instead  of  appraisal  of  the  logical  methods  of  science, 
or  of  sober  examination  of  its  necessary  metaphysical 
assumptions,  philosophical  activity  took  the  shape  of  an 
attack  upon  Materialism,  no  formidable  enemy.  Ulrici 
and  Trendelenburg  were  involved  in  this  also,  although 
in  the  preliminary  phases  of  the  conflict  only.f  Probably 
for  this  reason,  the  latter  does  not  appear  to  have  grasped 
the  essentially  epistemological  character  of  his  contri- 
bution to  pure  philosophy,  nor  did  Morris  suspect  this 
at  the  time.  Further,  as  with  Smith,  so  with  his  and 
Morris's  teachers,  the  sensation  produced  by  the  Hegelian 
left,  especially  by  Strauss,  wrought  sad  havoc  upon 
balance  and  objectivity.  For  example,  blinded  by 
temporary  panic  to  the  meaning  of  the  axiom,  "The 
genuine  critique  of  dogma  is  its  history,"J  they  preoc- 

*  Cf.  My  The  Anarchist  Ideal,  pp.  145  f. 

t  It  is  well  to  be  on  one's  guard  against  the  judgment  of  Fortlage, 
which  was  written  too  early  to  be  of  significance  for  modern  science, 
He  says:  "It  is  important  to  notice  that  natural  science,  as  it  now  exists, 
is  extremely  favourable  to  Trendelenburg's  doctrine,  to  such  a  degree, 
that  this  doctrine  may  be  termed  the  last  and  complete  consequence 
drawn  from  the  present  state  of  natural  science"  {Genetische  Geschichte 
d.  Philosophie  seit  Kant,  p.  449.)  The  date  is  1852,  and  the  reference  is 
to  Trendelenburg's  doctrine  of  Space  and  Time,  best  remembered  in 
connection  with  the  notorious  Kuno  Fischer  controversy.  The  intimate 
alliance  between  Evolution  and  eighteenth  century  mechanicalism  was 

still  to  come. 

XDie  chrisUiche  Glaubenslehre  in  ihrer  geschichtlichen  Entwickelung 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


221 


cupied  themselves,  philosophically,  with  the  question, 
"Whether  a  middle  way  can  be  discovered."*  Their 
emotions  aroused  by  the  onslaughts  of  Strauss  and  Feuer- 
bach  upon  'sacred  theology',  they  quailed  before  the 
philosophical  problem  and,  making  the  Absolute  trans- 
cendent, at  the  same  time  made  Him(!)  unknowable. 
Yet,  tossed  about  by  many  winds  of  doctrine  as 
Morris  must  have  been,  one  solid  plank,  floating  amid 
the  wreckage,  afforded  him  temporary  refuge  at  least. 
We  have  seen  that  he  learned  the  virtue  of  historical 
accuracy  from  Trendelenburg.  But  this  was  not  all. 
Led,  no  doubt,  by  the  revived  study  of  Plato,  exemplified 
in  Schelling  and  Schleiermacher,  Trendelenburg  passed 
on  to  Aristotle,  in  whose  philosophy  he  found  something 
stable — a  classical  surety  as  compared  with  romantic 
vagaries.  He  says  memorably,  in  a  passage  quoted 
often  since, 

''The  prejudice  of  the  Germans  must  be  abandoned  that,  for 
the  philosophy  of  the  future,  a  new  principle  had  to  be  discovered. 
The  new  principle  has  been  found;  it  lies  in  that  organic  con- 
ception of  the  Universe  which  has  its  foundation  in  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  and  which,  continuing  from  them,  will  have  to  com- 
plete itself  in  a  profounder  examination  of  fundamental  ideas, 
and  through  an  interchange  with  the  science  of  reality."! 

He  implies  that  there  are  several  ways  of  possible 
interpretation  of  the  universe.  After  the  manner  of 
natural  science,  we  may  hold  that  there  are  no  causes 
except  efficient  causes,  to  the  exclusion  of  final  cause; 
a  view  which  he  chooses  to  associate  with  Democritus. 
We  may  contend   that   eflScient  and  final  causes   are 

u.  im  Kampfe  mit  d.  modernen  Wissenschaft  dargestellt,  D.  F.  Strauss, 
Bd.  I.,  p.  71. 

*Ibid. 

t  Logische  Untersuchungen,  Bd.  I.,  p.  ix  (2d  ed.). 


222 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


223 


substantially  identical,  as  he  alleges  Spinoza  to  have 
taught.  We  may  discern  that  "the  principle  of  design 
or  final  cause''  so  operates  as  to  transform  efficient 
causes  into  effects— the  "ancient  philosophy.''  The 
last  is  the  "organic  conception  of  the  Universe  which 
has  its  foundation  in  Plato  and  Aristotle."  It  may  be 
said  in  passing  that  this  theory  afforded  a  certain  solution 
of  one  problem,  urgent  for  the  theologically  minded 
Morris — miracles.  For,  identify  your  final  cause  with 
God,  and  a  miracle  becomes  an  efficient  cause,  authent- 
icating a  revelation  because  attesting  it  through  *  facts' 
(i.  e.  events),  perceptible  to  normal  men.  But  to  return. 
Seeing  that  motion  in  the  physical  world  and  motion  of 
thought  are  the  two  species  of  "activity  disclosed  to 
us  through  sensible  experience,"  Trendelenburg  solves 
the  problem  of  the  relation  between  Thought  and  Being 
by  means  of  a  peculiar  theory  of  this  common  element, 
and  arrives  at  metaphysical  conclusions  very  similar 
to  those  of  Schleiermacher,  made  familiar  to  Morris 
by  Smith.  Consciously  or  not,  another  member  of  the 
same  school  states  Schleiermacher's  doctrine  in  such  a 
way  that,  with  little  or  no  essential  change,  the  summary 
might  fit  Trendelenburg. 

"He  teaches  that  in  every  kind  of  thinking  the  activity  of 
the  reason  can  be  exercised  only  on  the  basis  of  outer  and  inner 
perception,  or  that  there  can  be  no  act  without  the  'intellectuar 
and  none  without  the  '  organic  function,'  and  that  only  a  relative 
preponderance  of  the  one  or  other  function  exists  in  the  different 
ways  of  thinking.  Agreement  with  existence  is  immediately 
given  in  inner  perception,  and  is  attainable  mediately  also  on  the 
basis  of  outer  perception.  The  forms  of  thought,  notion  and 
judgment,  are  made  parallel,  by  Schleiermacher,  to  analogous 
forms  of  real  existence— the  notion  to  the  substantial  forms, 
and  the  judgment  to  actions."* 

*  System  of  Logic  and  History  of  Logical  Doctrines,  Fr.  Ueberweg, 


It  is  important  to  note  that  Morris  seems  to  have 
fallen  back  upon  this  type  of  theory  during  the  middle 
seventies,  just  after  the  struggle  with  scepticism  had 
virtually  ended.  Nor  is  this  strange.  The  ideal- 
realism  of  the  Neo-Fichteans,  with  its  earnest  Theism, 
could  be  grafted  readily  upon  the  New  England  conscience. 
Moreover,  the  moral  interest,  warm  in  Ulrici,  magisterial 
in  Trendelenburg,  with  its  strong  tendency  to  find  the 
basis  of  metaphysics  in  ethics,  cannot  but  have  been 
grateful.     As  Trendelenburg  declares, 

*'It  has  been  proved  by  Kant  that  pleasure  cannot  be  regarded 
as  the  motive  of  the  good  will.  In  that  case  the  motive  would 
be  self-love.  But  Kant  has  not  proved  that  pleasure  is  excluded 
from  virtue  and  that  nevertheless  the  reason  may  enter  in,  as  if 
by  a  back  door,  and  claim  happiness  as  the  reward  of  virtue,  in 
the  realm  of  actual  praxis.  In  the  direction  of  Aristotle  is  found 
a  principle  which  is  not  swallowed  up  by  pleasure,  but  which 
makes  pleasure  one  of  its  own  results."* 

Such  teaching  might  well  serve  to  broaden  and  human- 
ize the  Puritan  outlook,  without  in  any  respect  under- 
mining it.  Nevertheless,  Morris's  marked  copy  of 
Bratuschek,t  together  with  some  remarks  in  his  essav 
upon  Trendelenburg,  show  that  he  must  have  been 
acquainted  with  the  eclectic  character  of  his  master's 
philosophical  work;  and  he  could  hardly  fail  to  arrive 
at  the  conclusion  that,  of  the  many  sources  from  which 
it  is  pieced  together,  some  are  incompatible.  Thus, 
although  resting  on  the  theory  for  a  time,  as  the  Victoria 
Institute  addresses  indicate,  he  turned  from  it  when  he 
began  to  think  for  himself. 

Eng.  trans.,  Thomas  M.  Lindsay,  p.  70.     For  a  good  summarj^  of  Tren- 
delenburg's philosophy,  see  Philosophische  Propdeutik,  Jos.  Beck,  Part  II. 

*  Historische  Beitrage  z.  Philosophie,  Bd.  III.,  p.  213-4. 

t  Cf.  Adolf  Trendelenburg,  Ernst  Bratuschek  (1873). 


224 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


On  the  whole,  then,  apart  from  the  indispensable 
ploughing  and  admirable  discipline  secured  from  his 
German  professors,  the  continental  experience  appears 
only  to  have  prolonged  the  period  of  transition  and, 
perhaps,  to  have  delayed  the  attainment  of  self-mastery.* 

Turning  now  to  the  period  of  scepticism;  we  should 
recall  at  this  point,  that  other  movements,  facing  forward 
rather  than  looking  backward,  had  become  powerful, 
sometimes  vociferous,  in  Germany,  during  the  generation 
that  intervened  between  the  Wander jahre  of  Smith  and 
Morris.  In  respect  to  method,  Trendelenburg  repre- 
sented one  of  these,  while  Ulrici  embodied  a  phase  which, 
however  important,  was  waning  rapidly.  But,  whatever 
their  leanings  might  be,  like  German  professors,  they 
concealed  nothing;  they  had  no  use  for  an  index  expurg- 
atorius.  Moreover,  Morris  was  an  omnivorous  reader. 
Accordingly,  despite  the  temper  of  his  academic  instruc- 
tion, he  inevitably  came  into  contact  w^ith  the  larger 
sweep  of  nineteenth  century  thought,  nowhere  more 
unchecked  than  in  Germany.  Besides,  these  newer 
ideas  possessed  impressive  consentaneity;  all  appeared 
to  head  in  the  same  direction.  Uncertainty,  the  gradual 
ebb  of  idealism,  absorption  in  detail  to  the  eclipse  of 
significant  issues,  Irrationalism,  Materialism,  and  so 
forth,  combined  to  induce  doubt.  Even  had  he  so 
desired,  Morris  could  not  blink  the  facts. 

In  the  first  place,  starting  with  Hamann,  who  saw  in 
history — the  Old  and  New  Testaments  being  but  inci- 
dents— the  Geschichtlichiverden  of  the  Divine,  Germany 
had  taken  her  place  as  the  classic  land  of  the  victories 
but,   no  less,   of  the  wounds  of  the  critical    method. 


*  I  have  not  deemed  it  necessarj'  to  discuss  the  article  on  Trendelen- 
burg, which  confirms  this  view  emphaticallj% 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


225 


This  method,  dominated  at  the  time,  and  in  the  studies 
which  drew  Morris,  by  the  Tubingen  School,  inculcated 
absolutely   free   inquiry,   provided   there  were   a   solid 
basis  of  minute,  specialized  study.     But  it  also  taught— 
and   here  lay  its  salvation— "  that,   however  rich  the 
details  may  be,  no  single  feature  as  such  has  any  value; 
but  only  if  it  is  placed  in  the  whole  and  considered  as  a 
moment  in  the  process  of  the  general  idea  which  governs 
everything.''*     This  amplitude  of  outlook  was  dependent 
however  upon  the  great  Idealist    systems  which  ruled 
from  1800  to   1840.     Thus,  although  the  method  led 
men  to  write  religion,  philosophy  or  literature,  as  the 
case  might  be,— not  about  religion,  philosophy  or  litera- 
ture,—it  was  destined  to  fall  away  when  these  systems 
lost  control,  and  to  be  supplanted  by  an  ingenuity  or 
analytic  erudition  that  had  no  hope  of  success  save  in 
minuticB  of  investigation.    A  group  of  scholars  appeared, 
many  of  whom  'could  not  see  the  wood  for  the  trees.' 
As  Nietzsche   said,   in  revolt  against  his   philological 
training, 

"My  memory— the  memory  of  a  scientific  man,  if  you  please!— 
teems  with  the  naivetes  of  insolence  which  I  have  heard 
from  ...  the  specialist  and  the  Jack  Homer  who  instinctively 
stood  on  the  defensive  against  all  synthetic  tasks  and  capabil- 
ities.'^t 

Moreover,  while,  in  its  first  generation,  the  critical 
spirit  had  been  steadied  by  religious  conviction,  this 
was  receding  quickly  before  philological,  economic  or 
naturalistic  interests.  Truth  was  becoming  so  salted 
that  it  could  not  slake  man's  spiritual  thirst;  to  such  a 
degree,  indeed,  that,  lacking  other  synthesis,  even  the 

*  Carl  Schwarz,  op.  cit.,  p.  149. 
t  Beyond  Good  and  Evil  (Eng.  trans.),  p.  134. 
16 


226 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


rhetoric  of  Renan  could  be  welcomed — or  anathematized 
— as  ' science'!  And  Morris  appears  to  have  thumbed 
the  Life  of  Jesus  (1864). 

In  the  second  place,  the  spokesmen  of  the  premature 
generalizations  that  marked  pre-Darwinian  science, 
had  had  their  clamorous  say.  Vogt  (1847),  Moleschott 
(1852),  and  Biichner  (1855)  had  contrived  to  hypnotize 
multitudes.  The  political  unrest  of  1848  had  been 
followed  by  a  parallel  jeopardy  of  religion,  of  ethical 
values,  of  sober  scientific  accuracy.  Nor  could  Morris 
extract  reassurance  from  the  outburst  of  Irrationalism 
in  philosophy,  as  Windelband  has  aptly  baptized  it. 
The  last  phase  of  Schelling,  the  anarchism  of  Feuerbach, 
the  'amalgamism'  of  Hartmann — hotch-potch  philo- 
sophers, spiritual  rat-catchers,  misleaders,  in  Nietzsche's 
lambent  epithets — enlightened  on  the  lucus  a  non 
lucendo  principle.  Further,  the  vogue  of  Schopenhauer, 
just  after  his  death,  in  1860,  was  another  straw,  showing 
how  the  wind  blew.  Here,  again,  Nietzsche  laid  the 
situation  bare  with  keen  scalpel. 

.  "In  fine,  I  found  most  frequently,  behind  the  proud  disdain 
of  philosophy  in  young  scholars,  the  evil  after-effect  of  some 
particular  philosopher,  to  whom  on  the  whole  obedience  had 
been  foresworn,  without,  however,  the  spell  of  his  scornful 
estimates  of  other  philosophers  having  been  got  rid  of — the 
result  being  a  general  ill-will  to  all  philosophy.  (Such  seems  to 
me,  for  instance,  the  after-effect  of  Schopenhauer  on  most  modern 
Germany:  by  his  unintelligent  rage  against  Hegel,  he  has  suc- 
ceeded in  severing  the  whole  of  the  last  generation  of  Germans 
from  its  connection  with  German  culture,  which  culture,  all 
things  considered,  has  been  an  elevation  and  a  divining  refine- 
ment of  the  historical  sense:  but  precisely  at  this  point  Schopen- 
hauer himself  was  poor,  irreceptive,  and  un-German  to  the 
extent  of  ingeniousness.)"* 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  134-5. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


227 


Moreover,  Germany  was  about  to  take  service  under 
the  banner  of  F.  A.  Lange*  and  his  disciples,  who  oscil- 
lated between  two  poles,  upholding,  on  the  one  hand,  a 
form  of  subjective  idealism,  in  reply  to  Materialism, 
on  the  other,  succumbing  to  the  positivist  implications 
of  scientific  naturalism.  "  The  philosopher's  harmonious 
image  of  the  universe  is  a  sheer  illusion;  and,  for  philo- 
sophers of  the  school  of  Lange,  it  is  a  conscious  illusion."t 
This  is  indeed  "gray  in  gray,"  with  no  apparent  escape 
except  that  offered  by  Hume. 

"I  am  first  affrighted  and  confounded  with  that  forelorn 
sohtude,  in  which  I  am  plac'd  in  my  philosophy,  and  fancy 
myself  some  strange  uncouth  monster,  who  not  being  able  to 
mingle  and  unite  in  society,  has  been  expell'd  aU  human  com- 
merce, and  left  utterly  abandoned  and  disconsolate.  .  .  .  IVIost 
fortunately  it  happens,  that  since  reason  is  incapable  of  dis- 
peUing  these  clouds,  nature  herself  suffices  to  that  purpose. 
I  dine,  I  play  a  game  of  backgammon,  I  converse,  and  am  merry 
with  my  friends;  and  when  after  two  or  three  hours'  amusement, 
I  wou'd  return  to  these  speculations,  they  appear  so  cold,  and 
strain'd,  and  ridiculous,  that  I  cannot  find  in  my  heart  to  enter 
into  them  any  farther. "| 

But,  whatever  the  stress,  the  New  England  conscience 
barred  this  path. 

Fmally,  Darwin  had  come,  producing  a  fermentum 
cognitionis  equalled  in  the  modern  world  only  by  Newton, 
Kant  and  Hegel.  Morris  probably  knew  little  or  nothing 
in  detail  of  the  evidence  for  the  conclusions  of  the  English 
"all-destroyer."  Yet,  no  more  than  his  neighbours, 
could  he  escape  the  drift,  not  of  Darwin,  but  of  the 
popular    Darwinian    movement.     The    older    criticism, 

*  Cf.  The  History  of  Materialism  (1865),  Eng.  .trans.,  1879. 
t  Cf.  Hartmann,  Duhring  u.  Lange,  H.  Vaihinger,  pp.  191  f. 
t  A  Treatise  on  Human  Nature,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  544,  548-9  (ed.  T.  H. 
Green  and  T.  H.  Grose). 


228 


THE  LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


still  vital  in  Ulrici  and  Trendelenburg,  had  been  an 
appreciation  of  religion,  literature,  morality  and  instit- 
utions, in  short,  of  life  in  its  broadest  interpretation. 
And,  although  it  had  gradually  forsaken  study  of  indiv- 
iduals— "all  history  is  biography" — in  favour  of  the 
delineation  of  vast  mass-processes,  it  had  been  confident, 
nevertheless,  of  its  capacity  to  uncover  origins,  to  trace 
genetic  movements.  But  now,  disillusion  was  to  super- 
vene, because  the  Whole,  disappearing  in  the  maze  of 
the  parts,  the  search  for  origins  was  doomed  to  become  a 
description  of  an  unending  process,  without  ascertainable 
beginning,  without  discernible  end.  Scepticism  or 
agnosticism  in  the  theoretical  life,  pessimism  in  the 
practical,  had  found  an  unexpected — for  of  all  this 
Darwin  was  quite  guiltless — but,  none  the  less,  potent 
allv. 

Surrounded  by  these  influences,  which  were  permeating 
everywhere,  and  posing  as  *the  last  word';  the  check 
and  guidance  of  teachers  w^ithdrawn;  bereaved  in  his 
home;  disappointed  in  love;  unable  to  find  a  niche  in 
.the  American  educational  system,  Morris  passed  through 
the  fire  of  doubt.  But  he  consumed  his  own  smoke  to 
such  purpose  that,  save  for  confidences  imparted  to  one 
or  two  friends,  he  left  no  evidence  of  the  trial  through 
which  he  went  between  1868  and  1873.  We  know  that 
it  drove  him  in  upon  self,  to  such  an  extent  as  to  affect 
his  personal  relations  with  others,  even  with  his  young 
students,  who  judged  him  strange  or  *  queer.'  "The 
rest  is  silence." 

The  translation  of  Ueberweg,  begun  immediately 
after  repatriation,  must  have  done  Morris  a  real  service, 
by  affording  him  distraction.  It  certainly  solidified 
his  scholarship  and  confirmed  him  in  German  methods 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS  229 

of  critical   Wissenschaft.    Subsequent  publications,  be- 
tween 1874  and  1877,  when  a  silence  of  three  vears 
ensued,  mdicate  that,  after  the  sceptical  digression,  he 
was  mclmed  to  fall  back  upon  Trendelenburg,  although 
the   papers.   Philosophy   of  Art  and   Immortality   bear 
traces  of  Neo-Fichteanism  and  Ulrici.      The  criticism 
of  Tame's  The  Philosophy  of  Art  shows  too,  even  thus 
early,    a    strong    reaction    against   positivist    teaching. 
J^urther,  m  all  likelihood,  this  also  serves  to  explain  the 
occasion  of  two  of  the  three  important  articles  written 
durmg  these  yeavs-The  Final  Cause  as  Principle  of 
Cognition,  and   The   Theory  of  Unconscious  Intelligence 
as  Opposed  to   Theism;   the  third  was  Friedrich  Adolf 
Trendelenburg.     The  former  were  sent  to  London  by 
Morris,  in  his  capacity  as  an  Associate,  and  read  before 
the  Victoria  Institute. 

This  society  had  been  founded  through  the  efforts  of 
James  Reddie,  an  official  at  the  Admiralty  Office,  and 
Captain  (afterwards  Vice-Admiral)  E.  Gardiner  Fish- 
bourne,  who  became  respectively  the  first  secretarv  and 
the  first  treasurer  of  the  organization.     After  preliminary 
efforts,  continuing  over  more  than  a  year,  the  initial 
meeting  was  held  on  24th  May,  1866;  the  society  exists 
still.      I  am  bound  to  confess  that,  despite  some  famili- 
arity with  the  learned  societies  of  Great  Britain,  I  had 
not  heard  of  this  one  till  I  undertook  the  investigation 
of  the  Morris  papers.     Nor  am  I  altogether  blameworthy, 
for,  so  far  as  I  can  discover,  the  membership  has  never 
included   the   foremost   leaders   of  British   intellectual 
activity.*    At  the  same  time,  the  Institute  is  not  to  be 
classed  with  those  obscure  juntas,   whose  insinuating 

*  Till  1884.     I  am  not  informed  as  to  its  membership  or  activities 
smce. 


230 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


leaflets  one  receives  every  little  while,  devised  for  the 
purpose  of  filching  fat  annual  subscriptions  from  unsus- 
picious Americans.  The  interesting  and,  for  our  present 
subject,  significant  fact  is,  that  it  came  into  existence 
under  special  circumstances,  for  a  definite  purpose,  as 
may  be  learned  from  the  constitution  and  the  assevera- 
tions of  founders. 

Among  its  objects  are  those: 

''To  investigate  fully  and  impartially  the  most  important 
questions  of  Philosophy  and  Science,  but  more  especially  those 
that  bear  upon  the  great  truths  revealed  in  Holy  Scripture,  with 
the  view  of  defending  these  truths  against  the  oppositions  of 
Science,  falsely  so  called.  ...  To  examine  and  discuss  all 
supposed  scientific  results  with  reference  to  final  causes,  and  the 
more  comprehensive  principles  of  Philosophy  proper,  based 
upon  faith  in  the  existence  of  one  Eternal  God,  who  in  His 
wisdom  has  created  all  things  very  good."* 

The  original  circular,  issued  in  connection  with  the 
preliminary  canvass  (1865),  states: 

"In  fact,  the  Society  will  be  organized  for  the  purpose  of 
applying  to  'science'  somewhat  of  that  vigilance  to  detect  its 
errors,  contradictions,  and  fallacies  which  has  been  freely  enough 
exercised  in  our  day  upon  the  statements  of  the  Scriptures  and 
of  Christian  doctrine,  by  those  who  accept,  without  the  least 
actual  examination  and  with  an  almost  absolute  credulity,  all 
that  passes  for  science."! 

Reddie,  the  moving  spirit,  declares: 

"The  great  object  of  the  Victoria  Institute  ...  is  to  defend 
the  revealed  truth  of  Holy  Scripture  against  oppositions  arising, 
not  from  real  science,  but  from  pseudo-science;  and  this  is  an 
object  which  no  previously  existing  scientific  society  has  made 
its  aim.  ...  It  may  be  regarded  as  simply  notorious,  that 

*  Journal  of  the  Transactions,  Vol.  I.,  p.  vi. 
t  Ihid.,  p.  31. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS  231 

Science,  so  called  (whether  truly  or  not),  is  considered  by  many 
persons  to  be  at  issue  with  what  had  been  regarded  (whether 
truly  or  not)  as  truths  revealed  in  Holy  Scripture.    This  sup- 
posed contradiction  between  science  and  the  Scriptures  was  most 
boldly  put  forward  in  the  'Essays  and  Reviews/  as  a  ground  for 
rejecting  the  theory  that  the  Scriptures  are  wholly  inspired; 
and  Dr.  Colenso  and  others  have  followed  in  the  same  path, 
pubbcly  allegmg  the  existence  of  such  contradictions,  and,  so 
lar  with  a  bold  consistency,  setting  aside  the  Scriptures    in 
consequence,  as  false.  ...  It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that 'the 
Victoria  Institute,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  originated  as  a  defense 
movement.  * 

The  Inaugural  Address  of  the  Vice-President,  the 
Rev.  Walter  Mitchell,  opens  with  this  pronouncement: 

"No  one  who  watches  the  expression  of  thought  by  the  cultiv- 
ated intellectual  classes  of  this  country,  through  its  hterature, 
can  deny  that  the  opinion  that  science  and  revelation  are  directly 
opposed  to  each  other  has  been  spreading  with  fearful  rapidity."! 

Of  course,  Baden-Powell,  Lyell,  Darwin,  Tyndall  and 
Buchner  receive  due  castigation,  in  the  name  of  the 
argument  from  Design! 

"The  Noble  Earl"  (Shaftesbury),  the  first  President, 
remarked,  m  a  speech  delivered  after  the  inaugural 
dinner: — 

"The  Institute  would  be  of  the  utmost  importance  to  those 
who  had  no  means  of  access  to  the  answers  given  to  the  dele- 
terious nonsense  published  under  the  name  of  Science 
Some  conceived  in  mahgnity,  some  in  ignorance,  and  some  'in 
mistaken  notions  that  they  were  adding  to  the  general  science 
of  mankind."t 

Here  are  keynotes  to  "fully  and  impartially"  investig- 
ating "the  most  important  questions  of  Science,"  in 

*  Ihid.,  pp.  5,  6,  9.     The  italics  are  mine, 
t  Ihid.,  p.  4.5. 
t  Ihid.,  p.  80. 


232 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


233 


the  name  of   "the  more  comprehensive  principles  of 
Philosophy  proper"! 

"I  venture  to  say  that  neither  Dr.  Colenso,  nor  any  sceptical 
geologist  on  his  behalf,  can  point  to  a  single  geological  fact,  or 
even  to  any  respectable  theory  entertained  and  taught  in  any 
geological  work  now  extant,  which  any  great  number  of  geologists 
would  say  they  accept,  that  can  in  the  least  be  considered  as 
contradictory  to  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation.  ...  I 
have  alluded  to  Halley,  Laplace,  and  other  atheists,  infidels  or 
unbelievers,  who  have  no  doubt  been  glad  to  find  what  they 
considered  to  be  scientific  contradictions  of  God's  Revealed 
Word."* 

In  short,  we  have  a  body  of  highly  respectable  gentle- 
men, quite  innocent  of  philosophy  after  Kant  and  of 
theology  after  Schleiermacher,  almost  as  innocent  of 
science  after  Lyell,  Helmholtz  and  Darwin,  who,  stung 
by  the  *  scandals'  of  the  moment,  in  Essays  and  Reviews 
and  Colenso,  proposed  to  save  the  fabric  of  religion 
by  reverting  to  eighteenth  century  apologetics  wath  all 
its  brood  of  pitiful  misconceptions.  How  English! 
To  be  natural  and  revealed  theologians  in  the  same 
breath!  One  is  almost  persuaded  to  embrace  the 
hilarious  half-truths  of  Heine. 

*'In  discussing  politics,  the  stupidist  Englishman  will  always 
contrive  to  say  something  rational;  but  whenever  the  conversa- 
tion turns  upon  religion,  the  most  intelligent  Englishman  will 
exhibit  nothing  but  stupidity." 

Happily,  w^e  are  not  concerned  here  with  the  most 
intelligent  Englishmen  of  that  time. 

And  Morris?  Que  diable  allait-il  faire  dans  cette 
galeref  I  imagine  that,  at  first,  he  did  not  appreciate 
the  inwardness  of  the  situation.  For,  w^e  are  aware  that 
"he  was  persuaded  to  join  the  Institute  by  an  English 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  15,  24. 


friend."  But,  as  he  possessed  a  set  of  the  Transactions 
from  the  beginning,  he  must  have  become  acquainted 
with  the  tendencies  of  the  association.  Accordingly, 
we  are  bound  to  infer  that  his  cooperation  marks  his 
rebound  from  scepticism,  and  his  reversion  to  the  medi- 
ating theories  of  his  teachers.  The  signs  of  transition 
are  written  large.  Here  was  a  field  for  "ideal-realism" 
which,  in  the  name  of  religion,  "starts  with  a  measuring- 
rod  that  is  not  that  of  religion."  But  such  a  phase 
could  not  last.  We  find  that  Morris  disappears  from 
the  list  of  members  after  the  Transactions  of  1882-3, 
when  his  set  ends. 

The  essay  on  Final  Cause  is  reminiscent  of  the  Neo- 
Fichteans.  We  are  referred  to  Trendelenburg,  I.  H. 
Fichte,  and  Ulrici— whose  Gott  und  die  iVa^i/r '  would, 
Morris  thinks,  "if  translated  into  English,  subserve 
most  efficiently  the  ends  which  the  Victoria  Institute 
proposes  to  itself."*  The  problem  under  consideration 
is: 

"To  see  whether  the  ideal— thought— is  also  actively  present 
in  the  real,  as  a  principle  underlying  and  controlling  it— more 
especially  in  the  form  of  final  cause.  The  question  is  a  meta- 
physical one,  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to  our  judgment  of  the  real 
constitutive  nature  of  the  so-called  'real'  objects  in  the  world, 
or  of  the  world  in  general;  and  it  is  a  logical  one,  or  a  question 
belonging  to  the  theory  of  cognition,  in  so  far  as  it  is  connected 
with  the  complex  of  propositions  which  we  are  compelled  to 
hold  as  true  regarding  the  conditions  and  forms  of  human  knowl- 
edge. The  answer  to  the  metaphysical  question  will  depend 
upon  the  answer  to  the  logical  one."t 

The  paper  resolves  itself  into  a  judicious  attack  upon 
the  subjectivism  of  Kant,  and  the  premises  of  contemp- 

*  P.  16,  note. 
fP.  5. 


234 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


235 


orary  sensationalism  and  materialism.  Final  cause 
and  freedom  are  to  be  proven 

"by  an  inditctive  appeal  to  our  own  consciousness  and  to  that  of 
others — i.  e.,  by  direct  personal  observation  and  experience  we 
arrive  at  the  assertion  of  freedom.  The  denier  of  freedom,  on 
the  contrary,  proceeds  from  some  such  general  truth  as  that  of 
law  in  human  actions,  whence  he  deduces  sl  conclusion  in  conflict 
with  our  induction."* 

A  certain  amount  of  assistance  is  derived  from  the 
nescience  of  such  naturalists  as  F.  Schneider  and  E.  Du 
Bois-Reymond.  The  method  is  essentially  that  of 
Trendelenburg;  "we  proceed  by  the  way  of  analogy, 
arguing,  as  far  as  there  seems  ground  for  it,  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown."!  At  the  same  time,  one  must 
insist  that  Morris,  while  traversing  the  metaphysics  of 
mechanical  monism,  very  frankly  accepts  all  the  facts 
of  science,  so  much  so  that,  in  the  discussion  of  the 
paper,  he  was  charged  with  neglect  of  "the  being  and 
existence  of  God,  and  the  Bible  record."  In  a  written 
reply,  forwarded  by  him  later,  he  answers  this  typical 
sciolism  acutely,  saying: 

"I  made  no  use  of  scriptural  arguments  since,  had  I  done  so, 
I  should  have  begged  the  question  I  wished  to  prove.  He  who 
accepts  Holy  Scripture  and  Christianity  admits,  necessarily, 
the  doctrines  of  God's  existence,  of  creation,  of  Providence,  and 
of  the  soul's  immortality.  He  admits,  therefore,  that  nature  is 
controlled  by  and  has  its  origin  in  intenigence."t 

Morris  thus  lays  his  finger  upon  the  fundamental 
weakness  of  the  position  occupied  by  the  society  he  was 
addressing.  Further,  he  adds,  lifting  a  corner  of  the 
veil  from  his  own  sceptical  trials: 

*P.  8. 
tP.  11. 
t  P.  30. 


(f 


'My  paper  was  designed  to  aid  those  who  deny  or  honestly 
feel  that  they  cannot  intelligently  admit  the  philosophical  truth 
of  the  Bible.  There  are,  as  I  know  by  experience,  thinking 
minds  so  entangled  in  the  idea  of  nature  as  an  original  entity, 
working  with  blind,  mechanical,  resistless  power,  and  of  man  as 
but  a  product  and  part  of  this  natural  mechanism,  that  they  see 
no  possibihty  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  of  God's  existence,  of 
Divine  Providence,  and  of  human  freedom."* 

What  we  have,  then,  is  a  thorough  mastery  of  the 
materials  gleaned  from  German  teachers  with,  as  yet, 
no  decisive  indication  of  independent  conclusions. 

The  paper  on  The  Theory  of  Unconscious  Intelligence 
is  of  less  moment.  As  the  title  implies,  it  offers  a  crit- 
icism of  Hartmann's  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious, 
then  beginning  to  attract  notice  in  England.  There  is  a 
competent  historical  introduction,  emphasizing  the 
primacy  of  Aristotle  in  the  spirit  of  Trendelenburg,  and, 
after  Ueberweg,  suggesting  the  influence  of  Leibniz 
upon  the  Cambridge  Platonists.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  that,  when  he  comes  to  recent  writers,  Morris 
retains  the  inimical  attitude  towards  Hegel,  one  of  the 
least  fortunate  among  his  German  acquisitions. 

"Of  the  HegeHan  system,  Dr.  Volkelt,  himself  an  Hegelian, 
reafiirms  the  most  common  interpretation,  namely,  that  it 
represents  the  universe  as  the  gradual  evolution  of  an  uncon- 
scious, ideal  principle  {'ihQ  unconsciously  logical,'  as  Volkelt 
very  abstractly  terms  it),  which  attains  to  self -consciousness 
only  in  man  (and  most  perfectly,  it  may  be  presumed,  in  Hegel- 
ians of  the  school  of  Volkelt.)  "f 

This  is  one  of  the  very  rare  occasions  on  which  Morris 
forgets  "to  use  the  language  of  those  who  can  afford  to 
respect  others  because  they  respect  themselves.'*    The 

*  Pp.  30-1. 
t  P.  17. 


236 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


237 


critique  of  Hartmann,  while  sharp,  is  surprisingly  tol- 
erant. And  Morris  feels  the  diiBculties  so  keenly  that 
he  is  forced  at  one  point  into  something  suspiciously 
like  panpsychism. 

''Atoms,  whatever  else  they  may  be,  have,  as  I  believe,  an 
ideal  or  spiritual  aspect,  which  is  their  fundamental  and  control- 
hng  one;  and  all  force  is  reducible  to  will-power.  This  involves 
the  'imputation  to  atoms  of  a  germ  of  consciousness.'  As 
compared  with  man,  they  are  unconscious.  But  impUcitly  and 
germinantly  they  are  conscious."* 

The  discussion,  which  ensued,  shows  how  little  German 
thought  had  succeeded  in  penetrating  England. 

"We  must  remember  that  this  theory  of  an  unconscious 
intelhgence  at  the  head  of  the  universe  is  now  agitating  all  the 
mind  of  Germany.  We  must  not  try  to  persuade  ourselves 
that  a  theory,  which  has  occupied  an  intelhgent  nation  persist- 
ently for  the  last  twenty  years,  is  one  in  which  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  worthy  of  consideration.  .  .  .  The  present  paper, 
however,  contains  some  expressions  which  I  am  afraid  some 
English  readers  will  find  it  difficult  to  appreciate,  especially 
as  we  have  not  been  much  accustomed  in  this  country  to  the 
study  of  metaphysics.  ...  I  found  some  considered  that  it 
was  really  a  wonderful  work,  whilst  others  were  of  opinion  that 
it  was  disgraceful;  and  I  cannot  help  mentioning  a  remark  made 
by  a  young  friend  of  mine  at  Heidelberg.  ...  He  said,  'If  I 
wanted  to  make  money,  I  should  write  a  book  on  the  greatest 
absurdities  I  could  think  of,  and  it  would  be  bought  by  every 
German.'  Now,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  Hartmann  has 
succeeded  to  a  certain  extent  in  carrying  out  my  young  friend's 
ideas."t 

This  being  the  atmosphere,  the  fate  of  Morris's 
panpsychist  suggestion  was  sealed. 

"Such  a  statement  is  utterly  subversive  of  all  chemical 
knowledge.''^ 

*  P.  36. 

t  Pp.  38,  43. 

t  P.  42. 


Again  following  Trendelenburg  closely,  Morris  replied : 

"Absolutely  inert  matter  would  be  a  substance  which  does 
nothing,  which  has  no  power.  .  .  .  From  the  point  of  view  of 
positive  science,  it  is  also  false,  since  science  knows  nothing  of 
matter  apart  from  force.  .  .  .  How  the  force  called  'chemical' 
IS  related  to  conscious  will,  I  cannot  exactly  state.  I  maintain 
only  that  an  exhaustive  and  exact  analysis  must  end  by  tracing 
it  back  to  the  intelhgent  will  and  power  of  a  personal  God."* 

We  may  say,  then,  that  both  papers  are  excellent 
examples  of  criticism  and  evince  sound  scholarship. 
But  beyond  a  tendency  to  stress  certain  beliefs  associated 
with  the  theology  of  Christian  orthodoxy  in  Protestant- 
ism, they  fail  to  exhibit  constructive  thought.  More- 
over, they  are  singularly  swayed  by  the  controversies 
of  the  moment,  with  disadvantage  to  objective  treatment 
of  the  larger  philosophical  questions  that  necessarily 
obtrude  themselves.  To  adopt  Schelling's  phrase,  Morris 
objected  strenuously  to  theories  which  made  nature 
godless;  but,  no  less,  when  countering  them,  he  was  still 
a  victim  of  the  opposite  fallacy,  whereby  God  is  made 
unnatural. 

I  am  far  from  thinking  that  the  period  of  transition 
ended  definitely  with  the  Spinoza  article  (1877);  this  is 
not  only  full  of  very  cautious  praise  of  such  a  genius 
upon  such  an  occasion  (the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  death),  but  it  reduces  itself  to  a  running  comment- 
ary, however  competent  in  its  way,  upon  the  Ethics. 
Phases  in  a  man's  mental  development  are  not  to  be 
cut  off  from  each  other  as  with  a  hatchet.  The  fact  is, 
that  a  reaction  from  scepticism  cannot  be  identified 
with  an  'awakening  from  dogmatic  slumber.'  More- 
over, individuals  pay  their  debt  to  their  age.     And  there 

*  Pp.  45-6. 


238 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


was  no  profound  philosophical  ferment  in  the  United 
States.  Such  theological  troubles  as  came  to  the  surface 
tempted  many  to  view  fundamentals  as  *too  high  for 
them/  as  inscrutable;  thorough  discussion  lay  under  a 
certain  ban — did  it  not  savour  of  presumption?  Nay, 
Morris's  articles,  as  we  have  hinted,  favour  the  Mephist- 
ophelian  intimation, 

"  Verachte  nur  Vernunft  und  Wissenschaft, 
Des  Menschen  aller  hochste  Kraft.  .  .  . 
So  hab'  ich  dich  schon  unbedingt," 

more  than  the  plangent  assurance,  "The  hidden  Being 
of  the  Universe  has  no  power  in  itself  that  could  offer 
resistance  to  the  courageous  effort  of  Wissenschaft,"* 
In  a  word,  farther  reflection,  and  greater  emancipation 
from  the  leading-strings  even  of  excellent  masters, 
were  necessary  ere  Morris  could  come  to  his  very  own. 

*  Werke,  Hegel,  Bd.  VI.,  p.  xi.  It  should  be  noted  that  Morris's 
approach  to  Hegel  was  widely  different  from  that  of  the  founders  of  The 
Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy;  cf .  American  Thought  from  Puritanism 
to  Pragmatism,  Woodbridge  Riley,  pp.  240  f. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Intellectual  History.    The  Final  Stage 

When  Mr.  Andrew  Campbell  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  every  opportunity  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  him 
during  the  period   of  the  philosophical   professorship, 
informed  me,  several  years  ago,  that  Morris  did  not 
undertake    exact    study    of    the    Kantian    succession, 
Hegel  particularly,  till  after  1877,  I  was  frankly  incred- 
ulous.    But  examination  of  the  evidence  has  forced  me 
to  conclude  that  Mr.  Campbell  was  substantially  correct. 
The  undergraduate  course  of  1860  favoured  the  classical 
almost  to  exclusion  of  the  modern  languages.     Socrates 
and  Plato,  Cicero  and  Lucretius  loomed  large  upon  the 
academic  horizon.     On  the  other  hand,  German  was  a 
terra  incognita,   French   a   subordinate   and,   therefore, 
elementary  study.     In  addition,  the  influence  of  Locke 
after  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  of  the  Scottish  school  for 
sixty  years  after  1820,  led  even  professed  philosophical 
students    to    concentrate    upon    English    and— almost 
unconsciously— to  neglect  German  authors.     It  is  true 
that  the  Cartesians  obtained  some  small  recognition, 
but  rather  for  their  relation  to  British  thought  than  for 
their  own  sakes,  while  Leibniz,  if  known  at  all,  was  read 
in  the  Theodicy,  in  certain  respects  his  least  characteristic 
work.     Briefly,  scientific  history  of  philosophy  had  no 
existence.     For   example,    the   notion   of   Kant   to   be 
derived  from  Dugald  Stewart  did  duty  as  knowledge 
with  many!* 

*  Cf.  Scottish  Men  of  Letters  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  Henry  Grey 
Graham,  pp.  425  f.  (2d  ed.). 

239 


240 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


Again,  from  entrance  to  Union  Seminary  till  after 
return  from  Germany,  Morris  came  into  contact  with 
men  set  in  authority  who  happened  to  be  in  strong, 
sometimes  panicky,  reaction  against  the  conclusions  of 
the  single  group  of  thinkers  who  enable  the  modern 
world  to  hold  up  its  head  with  the  Greeks.  The  patent 
inference  is,  that  he  was  persuaded  to  accept  criticism 
upon  them  in  place  of  the  original  works.*  His  situation 
may  be  illustrated  by  a  parallel  instance,  belonging  to 
and  characteristic  of  a  later  period,  involving  thinkers 
of  the  type  of  Spencer.  A  friend  of  mine,  in  the  late 
nineties,  was  assured  by  an  acquaintance;  'Herbert 
Spencer  is  an  atheist.'  He  inquired:  'Upon  which  of  his 
works  do  you  base  that  opinion?'  The  answer  was: 
'I  have  not  read  any  of  Spencer's  works,  but  I  am  told 
so,  besides  Sword  and  Trowel  t  says  so.'  It  is  absurd,  of 
course,  to  suppose  that  Morris  ever  was  in  such  parlous 
case.  Nevertheless,  the  influences  that  surrounded  him 
conspired  to  obscure  the  main  results  of  constructive  philo- 
sophy. In  Germany,  moreover,  he  found  the  ancients 
set  upon  a  lonely  pedestal  by  Trendelenburg,  deepened  his 
acquaintance  with  Plato,  and  came  to  realize  the  import- 
anceof  Aristotle.  On  the  contrary,  he  saw  Kant  and,  even 
more,  Hegel,  through  the  deceptive  atmosphere  of  contro- 
versial criticism,  thickened  by  the  dust  of  political  and 
theological  strife;  this,  too,  at  a  moment  when  the  pro- 
tagonists in  the  lists  had  good  reason  to  exclaim,  each  to 
every  other: 

*  Cf.  B.  Croce  in  What  is  Living  and  What  is  Dead  in  the  Philosophy 
of  Hegel,  at  the  close.  The  warning  is  still  needful.  A  professor  in 
occupancy  of  an  important  philosophical  chair,  who  was  accustomed  to 
spend  much  time  in  flouting  Hegel,  told  me  once,  that  he  had  tried  to 
read  Hegel,  but  could  not  understand  him,  and  had  'given  it  up  as  a 
bad  job.' 

t  The  organ  of  the  late  Mr.  Spurgeon. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS  241 

"Zounds!     I  was  never  so  bethumped  with  words,      • 
Since  first  I  called  my  brother's  father  'dad'  !" 

The  forces  of  monistic  naturalism,  originating  with 
the  eighteenth  century  philosophes  of  France,  gathering 
momentum  from  the  German  materialists  of  the  middle 
nineteenth  century,  and  sweeping  the  English  world  in 
the   activities    of   the   anti-theological   missionaries   of 
Evolution,    brought   Morris   to   his   knees   after   1868. 
He  felt  the  need  of  supports  keenly.     But,  preoccupied 
with  exacting  duties  as  a  teacher  of  modern  languages, 
he  fell  back,  as  might  be  expected,  upon  the  mediating 
positions  of  his  German  teachers.     In  this  connection, 
far  more  than  for  their  philosophical  competence,  the 
Victoria  Institute  addresses  possess  real    significance. 
They  enable  us  to  splice  the  loose  ends.     The  important 
passages  are  as  follows: — 


a 


In  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  we  proceed  from  the  known 
to  the  unknown,  from  the  sign  to  the  thing  signified,  and  (quite 
generally)  from  the  part  to  the  whole.    Moreover,  if  knowledge 
is  for  us  possible,  it  is,  of  course,  so  only  under  the  conditions 
mherent  in  our  nature  and  in  the  nature  of  real  things.     It  is 
because  man  is  a  part  of  nature,  that  he  may  a  priori  assume  a 
fundamental  likeness  between  what  is  essential  in  his  own  nature 
and  what  is  essential  in  the  world  around  him.  .  .  .  The  distinc- 
tion between  real  and  phenomenal  needs  to  be  carefully  stated, 
by  definition  of  the  terms  employed,  since  it  is  by  no  means  an 
obviously   fundamental    one.    All    that    is,    appears;    strictly 
speaking,  we  know  only  how  the  object  known  appears  to  us, 
and  in  this  sense  it  may  be  said  that  all  our  knowledge  is  of  the 
phenomenal.  .  .  .  But  the  (conscious  or  unconscious)  employ- 
ment of  the  appropriate  logical  processes  leads  us  nevertheless 
to  distinguish  between  the  real  and  the  phenomenal,  and  to 
recognize  in  the  distinction  the  expression  of  a  fundamental 
verity.    By  knowledge  of  the  real  I  mean  knowledge  of  the 
essential,  constitutive  nature  of  the  object  of  knowledge,  of  the 
17 


242 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


true,  noumenal  cause,  or  metaphysical  knowledge.  All  other 
knowledge  relates  to  what  I  understand  by  the  phenomenal, 
hence  to  what  is  non-essential,  not  constitutive,  and  to  effects  or 
phenomenal  causes,  rather  than  true  causes.  .  .  .  Scientific 
laws  of  natural  action,  learned  through  observation,  are  laws  of 
so-called  mechanical  sequence.  .  .  .  The  laws  of  such  action 
are  laws  of  phenomenal  sequence,  and  not  of  causation.  So- 
called  mechanical  causes  are  not  true  causes."* 

"I  maintained,  and  still  maintain,  that  what  knowledge  we 
possess  of  spirit  is  more  original  and  absolute  than  any  fancied 
knowledge  we  may  seem  to  have  of  matter,  however  incomplete 
the  former  may  be;  and,  further,  that  our  ideas  concerning  matter 
are  hypothetical  (as  every  philosophical  scientist  admits),  and 
must  be  framed,  in  as  far  as  we  attribute  to  matter  any  substant- 
ive existence  at  all,  after  the  analogy  (near  or  remote)  of  that 
which  we  directly  know  of  ourselves  as  spiritual  entities.  .  .  . 
Our '  chemical  knowledge,'  it  is  quite  true,  is '  up  to  a  certain  point, 
unquestionable.'  But  it  is  so  only  within  the  hmits  which  circum- 
scribe all  phenomenal  knowledge.  It  is '  unquestionable '  in  all  that 
it  affirms  concerning  the  appearances  of  things  and  the  laws  of 
their  action,  in  as  far  as  these  laws  are  open  to  sensible  observa- 
tion. But  it  quits  its  proper  sphere,  and  is  abolutely  vahieless, 
when  it  is  made  the  principle  or  only  basis  of  inference  concerning 
the  intrinsic  nature  of  things.  .  .  .  The  error  of  scientific  men 
*too  generally  is,  that  they  identify  the  results  of  their  investig- 
ations in  the  region  of  the  phenomenal  with  knowledge  of  the 
real.  All  positive  science  which  is  duly  confirmed  by  observation 
comparison,  and  experiment,  is  to  be  accepted  as  true.  But 
this  true  science  of  the  phenomenal  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
science  of  the  truly  real,  or  of  the  true  cause,  the  underlying 
truth  of  the  real.  I  repeat  these  words  as  conveying  a  lesson 
suggested  by  the  present  discussion.  I  would  only  add  a  refer- 
ence to  Aristotle,  Metaphysics,  xi.,  6,  12,  where  a  wholesome 
warning  is  expressed  against  seeking  in  the  reports  of  our  sensible 
experience  a  criterion  of  ontological  truth.  Stripped  of  the 
local  coloring  which  they  receive  from  the  idola  of  Aristotle's 
pagan  mind,  the  words  of  this  master  contain  a  truth  at  once  old 
and  new,  and  worthy  never  to  be  forgotten."! 

*  Final  Cause,  pp.  4,  5,  18. 

t  Theory  of  Unconscious  Intelligence,  pp.  45,  46,  47. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


243 


The  emphasis  here  laid  upon  the  inevitable  collision 
between    natural    science    and    spiritual    aspiration,    is 
pushed  very  nigh  the  point  where  an  opposition  within 
experience  becomes  irremediable,  producing  an  external 
separation  or  dualism  between  intelligence  and  belief. 
For  this  reason,  Morris  does  not  wave  science  aside. 
He  takes  the  simple  course  of  staking  off  a  claim  for  it. 
As  for  the  spiritual   aspirations,   however,   they  must 
find  satisfaction  in  that  "solemn  shadow-land  of  un- 
changeable  ideas,'^  the    Unconditioned.     The   implicit 
tendency  is  to  view  the  antithesis  between  the  noumenal 
and  phenomenal   as  if  it  were  fixed.     Hence,   Morris 
comes  perilously  near  that  most  dangerous  of  danger- 
zones,  w^here  the  antagonisms  of  experience  are  accepted 
seriatim,    almost    as    irreflective    consciousness    accepts 
them,  and  are,  therefore,  left  without  a  rational  principle 
of  internal  unity.     At  best,  following  Ulrici,  he  seems  to 
fall  back    upon  the  law  of    Causality— a  category  of 
distinction  between  act  and  activity.     Natural  law  and 
mechanism,  human  freedom  and  divine  final  cause,  are 
maintained  equally.     But  the  terms  turn  out  to  be  so 
concrete  on  the  one  side,  so  abstract  on  the  other,  that, 
when  it  comes  to  conflict,  the  former  find  easy  acceptance! 
thanks  to  the  adequacy  of  the  senses,  the  latter  meet 
insurmountable    barriers,    thanks    to    the    inadequacy 
of  intellect.     In  short,  the  position  is  mined,  because  it 
conceals  a  lurking  dogmatism.     At  the  time,  how^ever, 
Morris  was  unaware  of  this.     Accordingly,  he  devoted 
himself  to   elaboration   of  the   difference  between  the 
phenomenal  and  the  real.     His  final  period  opens  with 
this    recourse.     His    first    book,    British    Thought    and 
Thinkers,   is   permeated   by  the   antinomy   of  modern 
criticism.     He  had  yet  to  learn  that 


244 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


"  The  freedom  of  spirit  can  vindicate  itself  against  the  necessity 
of  nature,  only  if  it  is  possible  to  lift  the  controversy  into  a  region 
in  which  those  two  are  no  longer  left  dogmatically  opposed  to 
one  another,  but  placed  in  due  relation  through  the  one  principle 
which  explains  the  possibility  of  each  kind  of  experience,  or 
even,  if  it  be  so,  of  seeming  experience."* 

Morris  had  not  gone  "back  to  Kant."  A  real  reck- 
oning with  the  Prussian  Hume  would  have  taught  him 
years  earlier  that  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  the 
pillar  of  fire  by  night  are  signals  of  the  Wilderness  of  the 
Red  Sea,  not  of  the  Promised  Land. 

The  attitude  adopted  by  Morris  towards  British 
thought,  though  by  no  means  ungenerous,  is  definitely 
critical.  It  therefore  affords  a  direct  clue  to  his  ow^n 
standpoint.     He  says: — 

"  In  general,  those  who  most  scout  metaphysics  are  the  most 
dogmatic  in  their  metaphysical  assumptions.  Every  man  must 
have,  and  does  have,  consciously  or  virtually,  his  philosophy,  and 
if  from  prejudice  or  indolence  he  will  not  take  it  from  philoso- 
phers, or  seek  it  by  appropriate  philosophical  methods,  he  is 
sure  to  take  it  from  some  other  source,  and  the  chances  are  ten 
to  one  that  he  will  be  led  astray.  The  empirical  psychologist 
is  rarely  content  to  be  that  and  nothing  else,  but  is  prone  to  seek 
in  his  science  the  answer  to  philosophical  questions.  This  is 
what  Locke  intentionally  did.  But  for  this  very  reason,  in  the 
language  of  an  extremely  able  English  critic,  he  Hook  description 
for  explanation' — and  incomplete  description  at  that."t 

For  Morris,  this  is  typical  of  English  thought.  He  is 
fully  aw^are  that,  from  Bacon  to  Spencer,  professional 
thinkers  see  their  problem  through  a  medium  which,  while 
it  lends  their  w^ork  a  distinctive  atmosphere,  limits 
their  outlook.     They  all  descry  an  irrational  element  in 

*  The  Critical  Philosophy  of  Immanuel  Kant,  Edward  Caird,  Vol. 
I.,  p.  42  (Isted.). 

t  British  Thought  and  Thinkers,  p.  193. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


245 


experience,  so  that  any  possible  solution  would  neces- 
sarily  bring  them  into  conflict  with  reason  itself.     The 
consequence  is  that,  ultimately,  they  abandon  the  most 
profound  questions  of  life,  thus,  in  principle,  relegating 
them  to  the  tender  mercies  of  irreflective  dogmatism. 
The  empirical  and  intuitional  schools  divided  the  empire 
between  them,   splitting  the  universe  in  halves.     Ac- 
cordingly, man  was  either  a  mere  incident  in  the  mech- 
anical order,  a  beast,  sorrowing  because  he  could  con- 
template his  dread  fate;  or,  cut  off  from  this  order,  he 
became  the  exponent  of  caprice,  the  master  -of  a  lawless 
will.     Morris  was  quick  to  seize  the  former  alternative 
and  to  expose  its  hollowness,  but  the  latter  still  lay  in 
shadow  for  him,  it  was  almost  unsuspected. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  saw  clearly  that  the  English 
poets,     Shakespeare    conspicuously,     were    profounder 
philosophers    than    the    professed    thinkers,    although, 
thanks  to  his  partial  analysis,  he  failed  to  insist  thati 
after  all,  poetry  '  is  a  noble  lie. '    He  approves  the  poetic 
achievement  so  thoroughly  as  to  blink  the  plain  fact 
that,  by  its  very  nature,  art,  no  less  than  empirical 
psychology,  must  eschew  ultimate  analysis.      Now  it 
is  doubtless  one  of  the  several  paradoxes  of  aesthetic 
history  that,  unlike  their  prototypes,  the  Romans,  the 
severely    practical    British    have    contrived    to    endow 
mankind  with  the  greatest  body  of  poetry  in  any  lang- 
uage.     Probably   we   must   seek    the   reason    in   the 
coexistence  of  two  nations  within  the  realm.     The  con- 
trast, implicit  since  Layamon,  became  open  after  the 
Revolution.     Puritan  and  Cavalier,  Calvinist  and  Jacob- 
ite,  represent    two   types   of    contrasted    background, 
each  antipathetic  to  its  yoke-fellow.    The  vast  majority 
does   indeed   find   salvation   in   the   narrow,    strenuous 


246 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


individualism  of  the  one;  no  less,  an  influential  minority, 
the  more  powerful  on  account  of  its  strategic  social 
position, finds  congenial  principles  in  Platonizing  idealism. 
Yet,  this  idealism  remains  dogmatic  at  basis,  so  that, 
on  the  whole,  two  dogmatisms  confront  each  other 
mutually  antagonistic,  but,  in  the  deep  things,  mutually 
supporting.  On  this  account,  for  example,  Carlyle 
was  hardly  less  open  to  reason  than  Spencer.  For,  as 
Mazzini  wrote,  the  Scots  prophet  had  "a  constant  dis- 
position to  crush  the  human  being  by  comparing  him 
with  God," -while  the  English  agnostic  merely  pulverized 
him  between  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstones  of 
'subject'  and  'object.'  Small  wonder,  then,  that  in 
their  anguish,  both  cry  aloud  for  the  mysticism  native 
to  poetry. 

As  I  have  said,  Morris  sensed  this  in  part,  not  alto- 
gether. For  he  omits  to  insist  that  the  members  of  a 
paradox  are  related,  because  they  belong  equally  to  the 
same  universe.  He  tends  to  solve  the  difficulty  by 
ridding  himself  of  one  term.  Hence,  he  has  no  eye  for 
the  third  great  contribution  of  British  thought  to  human 
culture — science — where,  after  a  manner,  the  age-old 
opposition  between  philosophy  and  poetry  is  overcome. 
At  its  best,  it  illustrates  the  real  nature  of  the  ultimate 
problem,  without  shirking.  British  philosophy  does 
indeed  betray  the  limitations  portrayed  so  admirably 
by  Morris.  But,  British  poetry  has  all  the  limitations — 
of  poetry.  So,  we  must  seek  such  rational  approaches 
as  the  English  mind  has  taken,  not  in  either  of  these, 
but  in  the  principles  indispensable  to  scientific  progress. 
It  has  been  pointed  out,  with  remarkable  insight,  that, 
compared  with  French  and  German,  British  contribu- 
tions to  science  are  inferior  in  methodical  arrangement 
and  in  bulk. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


247 


"But  among  them  is  a  small  number  of  works  of  the  first 
order  which  are  embodiments  of  scientific  ideas  of  the  very 
highest  importance.  Introduced  into  the  great  edifice  of  scien- 
tific research  which  was  being  planned  and  erected  on  the 
Continent,  they  mark  the  very  corner-stones  of  the  building."* 

Nay  more,  the  master,  synthetic  conceptions  control- 
ling scientific  thought  are  of  British  origin.  Despite 
the  enormous  advantages  conferred  upon  individuals 
by  the  organization  of  the  French  academies  and  the 
German  universities,  the  continent  boasts  no  names 
—Pasteur  excepted— that  thrill  us  like  Newton,  James 
Watt,  Adam  Smith,  Faraday,  Darwin  or  Clerk  Maxwell. 

''Where  the  height  of  genius  forbids  emulation,  where  the 
towering  intellect  has  distanced  all  records  ...  in  this  sphere," 
of  science,  "which  more  than  any  other  seems  to  bear  an  inter- 
national and  cosmopolitan  character,  the  genius  of  the  nation 
strongly  asserts  itself,  baffling  every  effort  to  control  it  or  to  lead 
it  into  more  conventional  channels. "f 

The  fact  seems  to  be  that  the  continentals  were  strait- 
ened by  extreme  division  of  labour.  They  could  not  be 
themselves,  a  force  majeure,  as  it  were,  condemned  them 
to  fragmentary  activities,  whether  they  willed  or  not. 
Free  to  develop  personal  idiosyncrasy,  the  English 
displayed  profounder  insight,  and  were  natural  philo- 
sophers.  Nor  have  their  neighbours  over  the  North 
Sea  been  unaware  of  this. 

"In  the  natural  sciences  today,  a  resolute  attempt  manifests 
itself  to  rise  above  the  world  of  empirical  detail  to  the  great 
principles  which  govern  everytliing  and  connect  it  into  a  single 
whole:  the  desire,  that  is,  for  a  Philosophy  of  Nature,  not  forced 
from  the  outside,  but  arising  from  the  subject  itself.    At  the 

*  A  History  of  European  Thought  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  J.  T. 
Merz,  Vol.  I.,  p.  276  (1st  ed.). 
t  Ibid.,  p.  280. 


248 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


present  time,  in  the  field  of  mathematics,  a  similar  need  makes 
itself  generally  felt — a  need  which  has  always  exhibited  vitality 
in  England."* 

Now,  this  premises  the  unifying  power  of  seminal 
conceptions  whereby  the  opaque  single  facts  are  trans- 
formed into  significant,  even  if  subordinate,  parts  of 
the  edifice  of  truth.  The  particulars  and  the  universal 
are  thus  seen  in  their  satisfying,  because  *  absolute/ 
relation.  And  in  this  connection,  it  is  most  noteworthy 
that  the  great  seers  of  British  science,  in  contrast  with 
popularizing  commentators,  have  sat  loose  to  the 
philosophy  of  the  schools  as  q^rule.  For  this  reason, 
I  suppose,  Darwin  wins  upon  us  the  more  we  know  of 
him,  while  Spencer  repels.f  There  is  something  large 
and  altruistic  about  the  one,  something  small  and 
petulant  about  the  other.  Quite  unconscious  of  this 
aspect  of  the  matter,  and  of  the  problem  which  it  pre- 
sents, Morris  is  weak,  and  the  weakness  is  a  symptomatic 
commentary  upon  his  own  viewpoint  just  when  a  fuller 
light  was  about  to  break. 

The  *rage  and  sorrow'  evoked  by  the  facile,  noisy 
metaphysics  of  materialism,  coupled  with  lack  of  per- 
sonal experience  in  the  processes  of  positive  science, 
prevented  him  from  seeing  that  science  never  advances 
by  simple  accumulation  of  empirical  details.  Synthetic 
concepts  must  inform  even  the  minutest  datum — 
whereupon  it  ceases  to  be  abstract  and  becomes  concrete. 
A  system  is  a  system  of  relations  or  nothing.  So  much 
so,  that  the  notion  central  to  it,  whatever  be  the  science, 

*  Vorlesungen  Hber  d.  complexen  Zahlen  u.  ihre  Functionen,  Hermann 
Hankel,  I.  Th.,  pp.  9-10. 

t  Spencer's  Autobiography  and  Duncan's  Life  of  Spencer  alike  confirm 
this  impression  which,  otherwise,  is  mitigated  only  by  the  pathos  of  the 
situation  or  by  one's  sense  of  the  nobility  of  the  career. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


249 


enables  us  to  differentiate  historical  epochs.  Thus  we 
have  good  reason  to  speak  of  the  Newtonian  and  Dar- 
winian epochs,  because  there  is  a  Newtonian,  a  Darwinian 
philosophy.    As  Romanes  said  of  Darwin: 

^'Natural  history  is  not  to  him  an  affair  of  the  herbarium  or 
the  cabmet.     The  collectors  and  the  species-framers  are,  as  it 
were,  his  diggers  of  clay  and  makers  of  bricks;  even  the  skilled 
observers  and  the  trained  experimentahsts  are  his  mechanics 
Valuable  as  the  work  of  all  these  men  is  in  itself,  its  principal 
value,  as  he  has  finally  demonstrated,  is  that  which  it  acquires  in 
rendenng  possible  the  work  of  the  architect.  ...  In  liis  eyes  the 
value  of  facts  is  due  to  their  power  of  guiding  the  mind  to  a 
further  discovery  of  principles.    And  the  extraordinary  success 
which  attended  his  work  in  this  respect  of  generalization  immed- 
iately brought  natural  science  into  hne  with  the  other  inductive 
sciences,  behind  which,  in  this  most  important  of  all  respects 
she  has  so  seriously  fallen.    For  it  was  the  Origin  of  Species 
which  first  clearly  revealed  to  naturalists  as  a  class,  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  their  science  to  take  as  its  motto,  what  is  really  the 
motto  of  natural  science  in  general, 

Felix  qui  potuit  rerum  cognoscere  causas. 

Not  facts,  then,  or  phenomena,  but  causes  or  principles,  are  the 
ultimate  objects  of  scientific  quest."* 

In  other  words,  the  perennial  problem  of  the  One  and 
the  Many  returns  for  judgment,  and  we  should  not  be 
so  obsessed  by  the  special  connection  in  which  it  may 
emerge  as  to  forget  that,  after  all,  this  is  the  ultimate 
quest  of  the  pivotal  discipline  of  philosophv— metaphys- 
ics. Whatever  be  the  field  of  inquiry,^  the  implicit 
difficulty  concerns  the  nature  of  the  synthetic  principle. 
Its  relation  to  the  particulars  and  the  interpretation  of 

*  Darwin,  and  After  Darwin,  Vol.  L.  p.  5  (1st  ed.).  Of.  Darwin  and 
Uegel,  D.  G.  Ritchie,  pp.  38  f..  and  especially  pp.  60  f.,  where  the  un- 
fortunate  tendency  in  interpretation  of  final  cause,  which  Morris  drew 
from  his  German  teachers,  may  be  gathered. 


250 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


the  Whole.  The  moment  this  shines  clear,  philosophy 
ensues,  and  we  ask— are  there  other  principles,  of  the 
same  type  fundamentally,  to  which  the  working  hypo- 
thesis of  a  science  must  be  referred;  above  all,  can  we 
discern  one  principle  to  which  every  other  must  be  carried 
back?  Thus  awakened,  man  cannot  but  undertake 
the  task  of  primary  criticism.  When  he  rides  off  upon 
exaltation  of  poetry  at  the  expense  of  a  phase  of  philo- 
sophy, or  of  mysticism  at  the  expense  of  a  special  science, 
he  merely  drags  the  wheels  of  his  chariot.  In  the  long 
run,  temporary  reasons  for  begging  such  questions,  no 
matter  how  insistent,  serve  only  to  increase  the  urgency. 

No  doubt,  as  it  specializes,  science  develops  peculiar, 
perhaps  inevitable,  limitations.  For  obvious  reasons, 
the  past  century  has  accentuated  them  to  such  a  degree 
that  reaction  begins  to  appear.     Bacon  says: 

"Another  error  ...  is,  that  after  the  distribution  of  partic- 
ular arts  and  sciences,  men  have  abandoned  universality,  or 
philosophia  prima;  which  cannot  but  cease  and  stop  all  progres- 
sion. For  no  perfect  discovery  can  be  made  upon  a  flat  or  level: 
^either  is  it  possible  to  discover  the  more  remote  and  deeper 
parts  of  any  science,  if  you  stand  but  upon  the  level  of  the  same, 
and  ascend  not  to  a  higher  science."* 

Had  Morris  dwelt  upon  this  aspect  of  Bacon's  teaching, 
he  might  have  noted  that  the  same  abandonment  of 
philosophia  prima  was  chargeable  upon  another  special 
science— theology,  particularly  the  'conciliation'  theo- 
logy in  its  uncritical  aspects.  Here  too,  a  blunder  was 
committed,  identical  in  principle  with  that  which  he 
fixes  so  persistently  upon  British  philosophy.  In  this 
respect,    the    vestiges    of    Natural    Theology    operated 

*  Advancement  of  Learning,  Bk.  I.,  Chap,  v.,  sect.  5.  Cf.  Bk.  II., 
Pref.  Sect.  8;  Chap,  v.,  Sect.  2;  Nov.  Org.,  lib.  I.,  80. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


251 


powerfully.     A  recoil  from  the  subversive  speculation, 
affected  by  rhetoricians  of  science  in  the  first  blush  of 
optimism,  led  Morris  to  lay  undue  stress  upon  what  he 
believed  to  be  nothing  "but  atheism  under  a  mask.'' 
He   therefore   attempted   to   vindicate   the   reasonable 
character,  not  of  Religion,  but  of  certain  dogmas  wherein 
a  religion  had  crystallized  at  a  definite  stage  in  its  history, 
forgetting   that   these   involved   more   or   less   definite 
philosophical  presuppositions.     Thus,  his  attitude  was 
theosophical  and  mystical,  just  as  that  of  contemporary 
science   was    empirical    and    mechanical.     Accordingly, 
in  so  far  as  philosophy  and  science  shared  a  mutual 
rationalism,  both  came  under  the  same  condemnation. 
The  implicit  error  happens  to  be  very  old,  and  is  not  by 
any  means  dissipated  yet.     We  may  venture  to  put  it 
paradoxically.     The    fundamental    difference    between 
philosophy  and  science  resides  in  the  more  thoroughly 
empirical   character   of   the   former.     All    that   science 
adopts  as  experience,  philosophy  has  already  recognized 
—it  sends  the  sciences  on    their  several    missions    of 
exploration.     But,  over  and  above,  there  is  a  portion  of 
experience  which  science  at  once  omits  and  presupposes; 
this  philosophy  recognizes  also.     It  cannot  confine  its 
attention  to  an  abstract  part,  for  its  problem  concerns 
the  concrete  Whole. 

This  forthwith  raises  the  question.  What  is  experience? 
And,  for  the  generation  to  which  Morris  belonged,  the 
answer  was  given  by  Kant  and  his  immediate  successors. 
Be  our  judgment  of  their  results  what  it  may,  this  has 
become  part  of  history. 

From  the  outset,  British  philosophy  had  adopted  an 
unscientific  or,  rather,  fragmentary  view  of  experience. 
It   mistook   states   of   sensuous   consciousness   for   the 


252 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


original  experiential  dattty  missing  the  significance  of  the 
self-conscious  self.  Hence  the  pertinence  of  Ferrier*s 
acid  remark — penned  before  psychology  had  become  a 
special  science. 

"The  best  way  of  attaining  to  correct  opinions  on  most  meta- 
physical subjects  is  by  finding  out  what  has  been  said  on  any 
given  point  by  the  psychologists,  and  then  by  saying  the  very 
opposite."* 

Or,  following  Ferrier  again,  and  taking  a  particular 
case,  Berkeley  alone  had  the  necessary  "eye  for  facts." 
Nevertheless,  he  too  was  so  influenced  by  the  national 
avidity  for  sense-knowledge,  as 

"to  invest  the  Deity  .  .  .  with  human  modes  of  apprehension, 
with  such  senses  as  belong  to  man — and  to  invest  Him  with 
these,  not  as  a  matter  of  contingency,  but  as  a  matter  of  necessity. 
Our  only  safety  hes  in  the  consideration  .  .  .  that  our  sensitive 
modes  of  apprehension  are  mere  contingent  elements  and  condi- 
tions of  cognition;  and  that  the  ego  or  subject  alone  enters,  of 
necessity,  into  the  composition  of  everything  which  any  intelli- 
gence can  know."t 

Hence,  Berkeley  failed  and  came  short,  like  his  prede- 
cessors, as,  indeed,  every  subjective  idealist  must. 
Omitting  Ferrier  himself,  and  John  Grote  w^ho,  for 
reasons  that  may  not  detain  us  here,  fell  far  short  of 
adequate  recognition,  it  was  not  till  the  lapse  of  some 
three  generations  after  the  Critique  of  Pure  Reason 
that  a  group  of  English-speaking  thinkers  arose,  w^ho 
were  destined  to  naturalize  the  Kantian  succession  in 
Britain,  Greater  Britain  and  the  United  States.  I  say 
*  naturalize'  advisedly.  For,  thanks  to  passage  of  time, 
we    now    see    that    the    old    labels — Neo-Kantianism, 

*  Institutes  of  Metaphysic  and  the  Theory  of  Knowing  and  Being, 
p.  322;  cf.,  pp.  324  f. 

-f  Ibid.,  V).  39S.     (3d.  ed.). 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


253 


Neo-Hegelianism,  and  so  forth — w^ere  misleading.  This 
point  had  been  taken  repeatedly  by  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment, like  T.  H.  Green  and  Edward  Caird,  although 
little  heed  was  paid.  We  may  cite  the  latter,  and  at 
the  moment  when  his  school  rode  on  the  high  flood  of 
success. 

''A  reference  to  definite  names  is  in  philosophy  often  taken  to 
imply  a  kind  of  discipleship  which  cannot  be  acknowledged  by 
those  who  beUeve  that  the  history  of  philosophy  is  a  Uving 
development,  and  who,  therefore,  are  adherents  of  a  school  only 
in  the  sense  that  they  trace  the  last  steps  of  that  development  in 
a  particular  way.  The  work  of  Kant  and  Hegel,  like  the  work 
of  earher  philosophers,  can  have  no  speculative  value  except  for 
those  who  are  able  critically  to  reproduce  it,  and  so  to  assist  in 
the  sifting  process  by  which  its  permanent  meaning  is  separated 
from  the  accidents  of  its  first  expression.  And  such  reproduction, 
again,  is  not  possible  except  by  those  who  are  impelled  by  the 
very  teaching  they  have  received  to  give  it  a  fresh  expression 
and  a  new  application.  Valuable  as  may  be  the  history  of  thought, 
the  Hteral  importation  of  Kant  and  Hegel  into  another  country 
and  time  would  not  be  possible  if  it  were  desirable,  or  desirable 
if  it  were  possible.  The  mere  change  of  time  and  place,  if  there 
were  nothing  more,  implies  new  questions  and  a  new  attitude 
of  mind  in  those  whom  the  writer  addresses,  which  would  make 
a  bare  reproduction  meaningless.  .  .  .  Any  one  who  writes 
about  philosophy  must  have  his  work  judged,  not  by  its  relation 
to  the  intellectual  wants  of  a  past  generation,  but  by  its  power 
to  meet  the  wants  of  the  present  time — wants  which  arise  out 
of  the  advance  of  science,  and  the  new  currents  of  influence 
wliich  are  transforming  man's  social  and  religious  life."* 

After  1878,  Morris  joined  the  ranks  of  philosophical 
teachers.  He  therefore  came  under  bonds  to  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind — not  about  natural  theology, 
or  poetry,  or  science,  or  dogmatic  theology,  but  about  first 

*  Essays  in  Philosophical  Criticism,  Edited  by  Andrew  Seth  and 
R.  B.  Haldane,  pp.  2-3. 


254 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


principles.  Looking  for  aid,  he  could  hardly  fail  to  note 
that  the  most  vital  thought  of  the  time,  congenial,  too, 
by  its  adaptation  to  the  ways  of  English-speaking  folk, 
and  by  its  profound  sympathy  with  the  problems  which 
had  absorbed  him  hitherto,  emanated  from  the  British 
idealists.  Poetry,  as  in  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  Brown- 
ing, Tennyson,  Carlyle  and  Emerson,  was  all  very  well; 
but  it  must  needs  be  divested  of  mysticism,  and  its 
unexamined  principles  had  still  to  be  proven  immanent  in 
the  common  things  of  common  experience.  The  move- 
ment, hesitating  at  first,  gathered  strength  slowly;  but, 
ere  Morris  came  to  feel  the  necessity  for  fundamental 
criticism,  several  most  important  works  had  appeared; 
we  are  aware  that  he  studied  them,  and  took  keenest 
interest  in  their  authors.*  The  evidence  shows  that 
he  gave  heed  to  Green,  the  Caird  brothers,  Wallace 
and  Adamson  in  particular.  Accordingly,  these  affil- 
iations represent  his  final  stage.  We  cannot  conjecture 
what  he  might  have  done  had  he  been  spared  to  transcend 
the  double-refraction  process,  and  to  produce  an  original 

"  *  They  were  as  follows :  The  Secret  of  Hegel,  James  Hutchison  Stirling 
(1865);  The  Dialogues  of  Plato  (with  the  famous  introductions),  B. 
Jowett  (1871) ;  Hume's  Treatise  of  Human  Nature,  edited  by  T.  H.  Green 
and  T.  H.  Grose  (with  Green's  epoch-making  Introduction,  1874); 
The  Logic  of  Hegel  (with  the  admirable  Prolegomena),  W.  Wallace 
(1874);  Cartesianism,^.  Caird  (in  the  Encycl.  Britannica,  1876);  Ethical 
Studies,  F.  H.  Bradley  (1876);  A  Critical  Account  of  the  Philosophy  of 
Kant,  E.  Caird  (1877);  Shaw  Lectures  On  the  Philosophy  of  Kant,  R. 
Adamson  (1879);  The  Social  Philosophy  and  Religion  of  Comte,  E.  Caird 
(in  the  Contemporary  Review,  1879) ;  An  Introduction  to  the  Philosophy 
of  Religion,  J.  Caird  (1880);  the  controversy  between  E.  Caird  and 
Stirling  over  Kant's  Deduction  of  the  Categories  (1880);  Kant  and  his 
English  Critics,  J.  Watson  (1881);  Fichte,  R.  Adamson  (1881) —in  the 
Blackwood's  Philosophical  Classics  Series,  which  Morris  was  to  follow 
in  a  new  form;  Text-book  to  Kant,  J.  H.  Stirling  (1881);  Prolegomena  to 
Ethics,  T.  H.  Green  (1883). 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


255 


constructive  work  in  a  special  department.  As  it  is, 
the  Ely  Lectures  alone  exhibit  him  in  a  role  other  than 
that  of  the  commentator.  And  they  are — lectures; 
moreover  they  pertain  precisely  to  that  aspect  of  exper- 
ience where  the  New  England  conscience  most  beset 
him.  Hence,  in  expression, — the  wealth  of  Biblical 
quotation  witnessing, — if  not  in  thought,  the  doctrinal 
interest  prevails.  No  doubt,  the  occasion  and  immediate 
environment  of  the  Lectures  played  their  part.  In  any 
case,  it  is  highly  suggestive  to  observe  that  the  words 
used  by  Edward  Caird,  who  is  contrasting  his  own 
more  strictly  philosophical  outlook  with  the  tendencies 
induced  in  his  brother,  John  Caird,  by  "his  life  as  a 
pastor  and  preacher,"  are  not  without  application  to 
Morris's  Philosophy  and  Christianity. 

''What  he  sought  in  philosophy  was  primarily  to  make  faith 
intelligent  and  intelligible.  ...  At  the  same  time  he  had  a 
confidence,  which  did  not  lessen  with  time,  that  such  modifica- 
tions could  not  touch  anything  which  was  really  essential  to 
religious  life,  or  to  Christianity  ...  a  deep  and,  I  may  say,  an 
unshakable  conviction  of  the  general  truth  of  the  Christian 
view  of  life.  .  .  .  Perhaps  he  did  not  realize — I  say  this  only  to 
indicate  a  difference  between  us  which  was  never  completely 
settled  in  all  our  discussions — how  great  must  be  the  transform- 
ation of  the  creed  of  Christendom,  before,  in  the  language  of 
Goethe's  well-known  tale,  the  hut  of  the  fisherman  can  be 
transformed  into  the  altar  of  the  great  Temple  of  Humanity."* 

Truly,  "the  work  of  Kant  and  Hegel  can  have  no 
speculative  value  except  for  those  who  are  able  critically 
to  reproduce  it."  And  the  reproduction  by  Morris 
was  not  that  even  of  his  British  contemporaries.  The 
inexpugnable  New  England  conscience  made  all  the 
difference. 

*  "Memoir  of  Principal  Caird,"  in  The  Fundamental  Ideas  of  Christ- 
ianity, Vol.  I.,  pp.  Ixvi-vii. 


256 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


257 


u 


British  Thought  and  Thinkers,  then,  while  palpably 
the  product  of  a  full  and  refined  mind,  lacks  the  poise 
of  wisdom.  Morris  knows  what  he  opposes,  he  does 
not  know  himself.  By  inference,  we  gather  that  he  is 
fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind,  only  to  suspect  that 
he  is  over-persuaded.     He  says: 

''On  the  whole,  both  in  religion  and  in  science,  I  think  we  may 
say  with  obvious  truth  that  the  characteristic  disposition  of  the 
EngUsh  mind  is  to  lay  hold  upon  alleged  revealed  or  natural 
laws  of  fact,  in  their  immediate,  practical  relation  to  the  Hfe  and 
interests  of  men,  and  as  narrowly  observable  in  detail  with  the 
microscopic  vision  of  sense.  With  this  goes  a  tendency  to  ne- 
glect that  more  comprehensive  and  penetrative  mental  labor 
which  traces  the  rational  connection  of  all  law  with  its  birthplace 
in  the  mind  and  will  of  an  Absolute  Spirit."* 

He  delights  to  contrast  "a  certain  insular  BornirtheiV 
with  the  "remarkable  exhibition  of  concentrated  moral 
and  physical  powder  in  the  intellectual  and  moral  Gedank- 
en-arheit,  or  travail  of  thought,  which  has  been  going 
on  in  German  climes  for  the  last  two  hundred  years."! 
But,  thus  far,  he  has  not  reckoned  "critically  to  repro- 
^duce  it,  and  so  to  assist  in  the  sifting  process  by  which 
its  permanent  meaning  is  separated  from  the  accidents 
of  its  first  expression." 

Hence,  a  veritable  philosophy 

''looks  upon  all  causation  as  the  operation  of  power — but  not 
simply  of  power  in  name  (whence  termed  unknowable),  but  of 
real,  known,  intelligible,  and  hence  rational,  spiritual,  power. 
It,  too,  admits  necessity;  not,  however,  the  necessity  of  fate, 
but  the  necessity  of  the  Best.  .  .  .  But  it  does  not  commit  the 
absurdity  of  supposing  that  the  instrument  practically  creates 
itself  and  is  subservient  to  the  ends  which  are  accomplished 
through  it,  simply  by  accident. "t 

*  Pp.  26-7. 
t  Pp.  26,  21. 
%  Pp.  384-5. 


Thus, 


It 


{I 


"not  only  man,  but  the  whole  universe,  is  placed  in  intelligible 
continuity,  though  not  identity,  with  the  Absolute  Reality,  or 
Supreme  Cause."* 

No  doubt,  all  this  may  very  well  turn  out  true.  But, 
reminiscent  of  his  early  Calvinism  and  his  recent  Neo- 
Fichteanism,  Morris  has  yet  to  learn  how  one  can 
maintain  a  system  of  immutable  truth  without  abstract- 
ing from  the  characteristics  of  experience.  A  "Supreme 
Cause,"  for  example,  would  seem  to  strand  him  between 
mutually  exclusive  alternatives,  both  meaningless.  For, 
as  between  the  deep  sea  of  an  infinite  regressive  series, 
and  the  devil,— an  unconditioned  member  of  this  series,— 
he  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  won  far  towards  an 
Absolute  Spirit."  Agreed— he  has  read  the  sign-post, 
no  road  this  way";  a  notable,  because  very  rare 
achievement.  Nevertheless,  to  affirm  of  others,  that 
they  "treat  as  an  affair  of  sensible  demonstration  an 
order  of  truths  which  lie  hack  of,  and  indeed  shine  through 
but  are  not  absorbed  in,  sensible  data,"t  by  no  means 
indicates  possession  of  the  clue  to  the  maze. 

Thus  we  gather  that,  till  the  last  decade  of  his  life 
opened,  he  remained  in  unstable  equilibrium.  It  would 
be  going  too  far  to  adopt  the  curt  remark  of  Hoffding 
about  the  younger  Fichte,  and  agree  that,  in  Morris, 
too,  "tendency  was  stronger  than  intellectual  interest," 
turning  him  "back  to  the  ready-made  God  of  popular 
theology. "t  For,  in  opposition  to  contemporary  em- 
piricism, he  has  a  most  definite  conception  of  the  task 
and    scope   of   philosophy.     Philosophy   proper   is    the 

*  P.  387. 

t  P.  167.     The  italics  are  mine. 

X  History  of  Modern  Philosophy,  Vol.  II.,  p.  267  (Eng.  trans.). 
18 


I 

i 


258 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


theory  of  life.*  But  life  proves  to  be  "the  omnipresent 
demonstration,  in  the  midst  of  the  phenomenally  actual, 
of  the  commanding  reality  of  the  ideal — i.  e.y  of  rational, 
spontaneously  active,  ever  directly  or  indirectly  creative 
spirit."t  As  a  result,  there  is  a  "tendency" — to  revert 
"  to  an  appeal  to  personal  feeling  as  the  only  force  which 
can  here  carry  us  to  the  goal."t  On  the  other  hand,  a 
little  later  Morris  asserts  that  philosophy  "  can  be  called 
the  science  of  self-conscious  reason."  Hence  "it  is  the 
sole  business  of  philosophy  to  comprehend"  the  "whole 
world  of  actuality."     It 

"perceives  that,  throughout  the  universe  of  living  existence — 
and  this,  subject  to  exact  definitions,  must  be  conceived  as 
equivalent  to  the  whole  actual  universe — the  mechanical  is 
conditioned  by  and  logically  posterior  to  the  organic ;  the  dead  is 
the  product  of  the  living,  the  phenomenal  of  the  noumenal."§ 

Now,  no  matter  w^hat  our  attitude  towards  this  view, 
we  cannot  but  agree  that  it  at  once  raises  the  problem 
of  the  nature  of  experience,  with  which,  apparently, 
Morris  had  not  yet  reckoned.  This  perceived,  he  tells, 
U3: — 

"One  of  the  happiest  signs  of  the  times  is  the  new  industry 
with  which  the  study  of  philosophic  science,  both  in  itself  and 
in  its  history,  is  now  being  cultivated.  The  watchword  in 
Germany  is  now — after  an  interval  of  comparative  philosophical 
exhaustion,  which  followed  soon  after  Hegel's  death — "back  to 
Kant!"  But  this  really  means  not  only  "back  to  Kant!"  but 
"back  to  those  successors  of  Kant  who  for  the  time  completed 
his  work! "  In  Great  Britain  during  the  last  decade  a  remarkable 
galaxy  of  scholars  and  thinkers  have  come  to  the  front,  who 

*  Cf.  British  Thought  and  Thinkers,  pp.  84  f. 
t  Ihid.,  p.  97. 
}  Hoffding,  I.  c. 

§  "The  Philosophy  of  the  State  and  of  History,"  in  Methods  of  Teach- 
ing History,  pp.  157  f.     (2d  ed.,  G.  Stanley  Hall,  editor). 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


259 


have  broken  over  the  insular  boundaries  of  earlier  British  specul- 
ation and  have  given  to  British  thought  a  new  and  healthier 
tone.  The  old  "metaphysics,"  including  that  of  its  most  recent 
conspicuous  representative,  Mr.  Spencer,  seems,  fortunately, 
to  be  already  quite  obsolescent.  .  .  .  What  does  all  this  mean? 
At  what  are  they  aiming?  .  .  .  Their  aim  is  in  its  substance 
not  a  new  one,  but  as  old  as  all  comprehensive  human  thought. 
It  is,  of  course,  primarily  to  promote  the  knowledge  that  philo- 
sophy, as  a  special  science,  exists  and  has  peculiar  problems."* 

The  eight  years  which  the  locust  had  not  eaten  were 
occupied  with  this  investigation  and  in  this  setting. 

Thus,  the  final  period  may  be  dated  from  the  Princeton 
Review  article,  "Philosophy  and  its  Specific  Problems." 
Here  we  find  that  "Philosophy  now  is  nothing  but  the 
examination  of  our  whole  and  undivided  experience, 
with  a  view  to  ascertaining  its  whole  nature,  its  range, 
and  its  content."t  Like  so  many  thinkers  at  the  time, 
Morris  is  traversing  the  doctrine  that  a  generalization 
about  "the  redistribution  of  matter  and  motion" 
includes  and  contains  "the  final  explanation  of  all  that 
man  knows  or  can  know."    This 

"Is  the  'spur  of  denial'  which  has  goaded  the  human  mind  in 
every  historic  instance  of  high  philosophic  achievement  on  to 
the  rescue  of  its  most  sacred  and  substantial,  i.  e.,  its  ideal, 
possessions.  The  plausible  and  destructive,  though  superficial 
doubt  of  the  Sophists,  was  followed  by  the  energetic  self-assertion 
of  intelligence  in  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle.  The  spiritual- 
istic negativism  of  Spinozaf  and  Locke  served  as  a  counter- 
irritant  to  Leibniz.  The  philosophical  scepticism  of  Hume 
awoke  Kant  from  his  self-confessed  'dogmatic  slumber,'  and 

*  Princeton  Review,  Vol.  IX.,  (new  series),  pp.  216  f.  The  italics 
are  mine. 

fP.  212. 

t  The  tendency  to  minimize  Spinoza  seems  to  have  been  persistent 
with  Morris.  It  is  traceable,  probably,  to  his  inherited  culture  which, 
in  this  case,  warped  his  acquired  knowledge  of  the  history  of  philosophy. 


m 


m 


I 


258 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


theory  of  life.*  But  life  proves  to  be  "the  omnipresent 
demonstration,  in  the  midst  of  the  phenomenally  actual, 
of  the  commanding  reality  of  the  ideal — i.  e.y  of  rational, 
spontaneously  active,  ever  directly  or  indirectly  creative 
spirit. "t  As  a  result,  there  is  a  "tendency" — to  revert 
"  to  an  appeal  to  personal  feeling  as  the  only  force  which 
can  here  carry  us  to  the  goal."t  On  the  other  hand,  a 
little  later  Morris  asserts  that  philosophy  "can  be  called 
the  science  of  self-conscious  reason."  Hence  "it  is  the 
sole  business  of  philosophy  to  comprehend"  the  "whole 
world  of  actuality."     It 

"perceives  that,  throughout  the  universe  of  living  existence — 
and  this,  subject  to  exact  definitions,  must  be  conceived  as 
equivalent  to  the  whole  actual  universe — the  mechanical  is 
conditioned  by  and  logically  posterior  to  the  organic ;  the  dead  is 
the  product  of  the  living,  the  phenomenal  of  the  noumenal."§ 

Xow,  no  matter  w^hat  our  attitude  towards  this  view, 
we  cannot  but  agree  that  it  at  once  raises  the  problem 
of  the  nature  of  experience,  with  which,  apparently, 
Morris  had  not  yet  reckoned.  This  perceived,  he  tells, 
us: — 

"One  of  the  happiest  signs  of  the  times  is  the  new  industry 
with  which  the  study  of  philosophic  science,  both  in  itself  and 
in  its  history,  is  now  being  cultivated.  The  watchword  in 
Germany  is  now — after  an  interval  of  comparative  philosophical 
exhaustion,  which  followed  soon  after  Hegel's  death — "back  to 
Kant!"  But  this  really  means  not  only  "back  to  Kant!"  but 
"back  to  those  successors  of  Kant  who  for  the  time  completed 
his  work ! "  In  Great  Britain  during  the  last  decade  a  remarkable 
galaxy  of  scholars  and  thinkers  have  come  to  the  front,  who 

*  Cf.  British  Thought  and  Thinkers,  pp.  84  f. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  97. 
X  Hoffding,  I.  c. 

§  "The  Philosophy  of  the  State  and  of  History,"  in  Methods  of  Teach- 
ing History,  pp.  157  f.     (2d  ed.,  G.  Stanley  Hall,  editor). 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


259 


it  .■ 

:'    f 

I  J 
1 


have  broken  over  the  insular  boundaries  of  earlier  British  specul- 
ation and  have  given  to  British  thought  a  new  and  healthier 
tone.  The  old  "metaphysics,"  including  that  of  its  most  recent 
conspicuous  representative,  Mr.  Spencer,  seems,  fortunately, 
to  be  already  quite  obsolescent.  .  .  .  What  does  all  this  mean? 
At  what  are  they  aiming?  .  .  .  Their  aim  is  in  its  substance 
not  a  new  one,  but  as  old  as  all  comprehensive  human  thought. 
It  is,  of  course,  primarily  to  promote  the  knowledge  that  philo- 
sophy, as  a  special  science,  exists  and  has  pecuUar  problems."* 

The  eight  years  which  the  locust  had  not  eaten  were 
occupied  with  this  investigation  and  in  this  setting. 

Thus,  the  final  period  may  be  dated  from  the  Princeton 
Review  article,  "Philosophy  and  its  Specific  Problems." 
Here  we  find  that  "Philosophy  now  is  nothing  but  the 
examination  of  our  whole  and  undivided  experience, 
with  a  view  to  ascertaining  its  whole  nature,  its  range, 
and  its  content."t  Like  so  many  thinkers  at  the  time, 
Morris  is  traversing  the  doctrine  that  a  generalization 
about  "the  redistribution  of  matter  and  motion" 
includes  and  contains  "the  final  explanation  of  all  that 
man  knows  or  can  know."    This 

"Is  the  'spur  of  denial'  which  has  goaded  the  human  mind  in 
every  historic  instance  of  high  philosophic  achievement  on  to 
the  rescue  of  its  most  sacred  and  substantial,  i.  e.,  its  ideal, 
possessions.  The  plausible  and  destructive,  though  superficial 
doubt  of  the  Sophists,  was  followed  by  the  energetic  self-assertion 
of  intelligence  in  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle.  The  spiritual- 
istic negativism  of  Spinozat  and  Locke  served  as  a  counter- 
irritant  to  Leibniz.  The  philosophical  scepticism  of  Hume 
awoke  Kant  from  his  self-confessed  'dogmatic  slumber,'  and 

*  Princeton  Review,  Vol.  IX.,  (new  series),  pp.  216  f.  The  italics 
are  mine. 

t  P.  212. 

X  The  tendency  to  minimize  Spinoza  seems  to  have  been  persistent 
with  Morris.  It  is  traceable,  probably,  to  his  inherited  culture  which, 
in  this  case,  warped  his  acquired  knowledge  of  the  history  of  philosophy. 


If 


M 


!♦■< 


li 


260 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


261 


Kant  brought  forth  those  not  less  illustrious  and  influential 
'Epigonen'  who,  if  they  did  not  reconstruct,  certainly  rehabiht- 
ated,  the  world  of  mind  and   man's  undivided   experience."* 

For, 

"The  dogma  of  our  necessary  ignorance  concerning  aught 
butr  sensible  phenomena  is  not  a  physical  object.  It  is  an  ideal 
persuasion,  which,  if  demonstratively  established,  results,  not 
from  the  investigations  of  physical  science,  but  from  inquiries 
which  belong  to  the  science  of  knowledge,  the  science  which 
determines  the  nature  and  scope  of  all  knowledge."! 

Accordingly,  it  is  necessary  to  be  more  "  experimental' 't 
than  the  empiricists.  Kant  was  the  pioneer  of  this 
movement.     His 

''Critique  of  Pure  Reason  is  simply  a  re-examination  of  the 
traditional  British  theory  of  sensible  consciousness,  with  the 
result  of  showing  that  all  consciousness  is  not  merely  sensible, 
but  also  intelligible.  .  .  .  But  Kant  went  only  half  way  in  his 
exploration  of  conscious  experience.  Under  the  influence  of 
early  prejudice  he  was  led  to  treat  inteUigence  only  as  a  logical 
or  formal  aspect  of  sense,  which  latter  was  held  to  be  the  domin- 
ant factor  in  consciousness  and  alone  the  determining  factor 
of,  real  knowledge.  His  successors  demonstrated,  not  by  far- 
fetched, roundabout  ways  of  indirect  'proof  or  of  merely 
plausible  but  fanciful  hypothesis,  but  by  a  more  complete  and 
scientific  examination  of  the  facts  of  the  case  itself,  that  sense  is 
rather  only  an  aspect  of  inteUigence;  that  intelligence,  further, 
is  not  merely  subjective,  a  purely  formal  mechanism  of  the  intel- 
lect, but  is  also  objective,  and  stretches  out  spiritual  arms  to 
embrace,  not  the  dark  phantom  of  the  'unknowable'  or  of  the 
inaccessible,  because  non-sensible,  Ding-an-sich,  but  an  intel- 
ligible, rational,  self-illumining,  and  self-explaining  world  of 
living,  present,  and  effective  reahty."§ 

*Pp.  210-11. 
tPp.  211. 

t  Throughout  the  article,  Morris  employs  "experimental"  and  "ex- 
periment" for  experiential  and  experience. 
§  P.  222. 


The  article  concludes  with  an  outline  of  a  system  of 
philosophy:  "Science  of  Knowledge;  Science  of  Being; 
Nature,  Society,  Art,  Religion."  Morris's  books,  from 
the  study  of  the  Critique  of  Pure  Reason,  deal  with  the 
first,  as  seen  through  Kant  historically;  with  Society  as 
presented  by  Hegel;  and  with  Religion,  in  the  Ely 
Lectures,  from  his  own  standpoint. 

The  prospectus  of  the  Series,  German  Philosophical 
Classics  for  English  Readers  and  Students,  undoubtedly 
written  by  Morris,  contains  a  remark  that  serves  to 
throw  considerable  light  upon  his  method  of  approach 
to  Kant. 

''The  aim  in  each  case  will  be  to  furnish  a  clear  and  attractive 
statement  ...  of  the  original  author's  argument  .  .  .  and 
especially  to  show,  as  occasion  may  require,  in  what  way  German 
thought  contains  the  natural  complement,  and  much-needed 
corrective,  of  British  speculation."* 

On  the  other  hand,  we  find  Adamson,  for  example, 
seeking  the  reasons  for  the  return  to  Kant 

''Not  only  within  the  limited  sphere  of  philosophy  proper, 
but  in  the  wider  sphere  of  science  and  the  ordinary  consciousness. 
.  .  .  The  rapid  development  of  the  physical  sciences  has  not  only 
brought  their  results  into  apparent  conflict  with  the  ordinary 
principles  of  thought  and  conduct,  but  has  roused  attention  to 
the  ultimate  notions  involved  in  scientific  procedure  as  such."t 

Upon  the  w^hole,  an  emphasis  of  this  general  character 
marks  the  works  of  the  British  commentators  on  Kant. 
Not  so  Morris.  As  his  reviewer  in  Mind  has  it,  his 
expositions  "have  been  aimed  at  the  frow^ard  generation 
that  still  looks  for  some  philosophical  fruit  from  '  English 
Psychology.'"!    But   even  this  is   hardly  a  complete 

*  The  italics  are  mine. 

t  On  the  Philosophy  of  Kant,  p.  7. 

:  Vol.  VII  (Old  Series),  p.  604. 


II 

II 


II 


t 

i 


262 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


account  of  the  matter.  His  attitude  is  the  issue  of  a 
long  intellectual  history.  He  comprehends  his  own 
problem  through  Kant,  and  calls  upon  the  great  critic 
to  determine  the  disposition  of  the  New  England  con- 
science as  it  now  found  itself  in  a  newer  America. 

We  have  had  abundant  reason  to  see  that  the  New 
England  conscience  contributed  the  positive  element 
to  Morris's  mental  and  spiritual  being.  But  in  his  case, 
as  often  happens,  the  positive  implied  a  negative.    The 

*  Eternal  Yea '  of  Puritan  moralism  was  countered  by  the 

*  Eternal  Nay'  which  natural  science,  intoxicated  with 
success,  had  quickly  generated.  The  immediate  ex- 
travagances were  such  as  to  vex  even  the  patient, 
sympathetic  soul  of  Lotze  who,  with  pardonable  irrit- 
ation, wrote: 

"Here,  too,  men  pass  from  timidity  to  presumptuous  boldness. 
Having  once  tasted  the  delight  of  impartial  and  wholly  unfettered 
investigation,  they  rush  into  a  sham  and  puerile  kind  of  heroism 
that  glories  in  having  renounced  that  which  no  one  has  ever  any 
right  to  renounce;  and  reposing  boundless  confidence  in  assump- 
tions which  are  by  no  means  incontestable,  estimate  the  truth 
of  their  new  philosophic  views  in  direct  proportion  to  the  degree 
of  offensive  hostility  which  these  exliibit  towards  everything — 
except  science — that  is  held  sacred  by  the  living  soul  of  man."* 

Time  has  softened  these  antagonisms  greatly,  at  least 
among  the  masters  who  know,  so  much  so,  that  they 
lack  reality  for  us.  Nevertheless,  we  must  remember 
that  in  Morris's  day,  they  occupied  the  foreground  of 
the  picture.  Moreover,  many  believed  that  a  certain 
type  of  pure  philosophy,  English  empiricism  particularly, 
was  in  unholy  league  with  this  deification  of  science 
which,  as  they  also  held,  involved  an  implicit  dogmatism. 

*  Microcosmus,  Vol.  I.,  p.  8  (Eng.  trans.). 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


263 


The  American  vogue  of  Spencer  furnished  suflBcient 
proof.  For,  do  not  "the  present  professors  of  natural 
science,"   despite 

''their  noisy  glorification  of  experience  .  .  .  with  laudable 
modesty  question  in  many  individual  cases  whether  they  have 
yet  discovered  the  true  law  which  governs  some  group  of  pro- 
cesses under  investigation;  but  they  have  no  doubt  in  the  abstract 
as  to  the  presence  of  laws  which  connect  all  parts  of  the  world's 
course  in  such  a  way  that,  if  once  complete  knowledge  had  been 
attained,  infallible  inferences  might  be  made  from  one  to  the 
other."* 

By  what  right  is  philosophy,  whose  business  it  is  to 
criticise  the  "inadequate,  disconnected  and  frequently 
inconsistent  ideas  of  Physical  Science,"  similarly  dog- 
matic? Morris  felt  that  this  dogmatism  was  no  less 
partial  than  that  in  which  he  had  been  reared,  and  he 
set  himself  to  combat  it.  He  was  awakening  to  the  fact 
that  the  *  closed'  universe  of  modern  idealism,  as  of 
modern  naturalism,  not  content  with  absorbing  man's 
physical  life,  had  laid  hold  upon  his  very  personality. 
Hence,  a  fresh  interpretation  had  become  necessary, 
one  not  only  new  in  America,  but  also  little  germane  to 
the '  philosophy  of  science '  as  it  went  then.  Accordingly, 
the  naturalization  of  Kant  is  a  naturalization  precisely 
in  proportion  as  Morris  was  touched  by  these  controver- 
sies. So  he  proceeds  to  develop  his  positive  teaching 
through  the  negative  medium  of  criticism  upon  another 
position. 

The  book  on  Kant's  Critique  of  Pure  Reason  is  pre- 
cisely "A  Critical  Exposition,"  as  the  title-page  asserts. 
Without  delay  or  circumlocution,  Morris  strikes  his 
key-note  decisively  in  the  first  paragraph  of  the  "In- 
troduction." 

*  Metaphysic,  H.  Lotze,  pp.  3-4  (Eng.  trans.). 


II 


11 


M 


264 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


''The  works  that  have  marked  epochs,  of  one  kind  or  another, 
in  the  history  of  philosophy,  are  very  different  in  character. 
Some  of  them  are  constructive,  and  lead  to  positive  conclusions; 
others  are  destructive,  and  end  mainly  in  negations;  others, 
still,  are  ''critical,"  marking  periods  of  transition  in  the  history 
of  philosophic  intelligence,  from  negative  or  skeptical  to  more 
positive  and  affirmative  convictions.  Examples  of  the  first 
class  are  found  in  the  writings  of  Plato,  Aristotle,  Leibniz, 
Hegel  and  others.  Hume's  'Treatise  on  Human  Nature' 
illustrates  conspicuously  the  second  class;  while  of  the  third, 
Kant's  'Critique  of  Pure  Reason'  furnishes  the  most  note- 
worthy instance."* 

Viewing  philosophy  as  the  science  of  Being,  to  which 
the  science  of  Knowledge  furnishes  "the  key,'*  Morris 
maintains  a  continuous  polemic  upon  the  assumption 
that  "all  knowledge  is  sensible  knowledge."     For, 

"If  all  human  knowledge  were  specifically  and  exclusively 
sensible  .  .  .  agnosticism  would  be  the  last  word  of  philosophy. 
But  this  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  philosophy  would  not,  in  any 
positive  sense,  exist.  For  philosophy  is  the  science  of  Being; 
but  agnosticism  consists  in  nothing  but  a  persuasion  that  no 
such  science  is  possible."! 

In  so  far  as  survivals  of  this  attitude  find  favour  with 
Kant,  the  critical  side  of  the  exposition  predominates; 
in  so  far  as  Kant  freed  himself  from  these  survivals,  in 
principle,  the  expository  side  prevails. 

The  following  passages  serve  to  indicate  the  line  of 
approach  very  clearly.  In  them,  as  in  the  entire  volume, 
we  sense  the  beat  of  the  coercive  New  England  con- 
science. 

"Modern  philosophy  before  Kant's  time,  had,  as  a  whole, 
been  effectually  stunted  in  its  growth.  This  in  consequence  of 
two  circumstances:  first,  that  as  a  general  rule,  the  so-called 

♦P.  1. 
t  P.  10. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


265 


founders  of  modern  philosophy  made  it  a  principle  of  their 
procedure  wholly  to  '  break  off  from  the  past '  .  .  .  and  secondly, 
that  modern  philosophy  took  its  rise  at  a  time  when  the  mathe- 
matical and  physical  sciences,  which  are  specifically  concerned 
only  with  the  facts  or  conditioning  forms  and  relations  of  sensible 
existence,  were  being,  or  beginning  to  be,  cultivated  with  unusual 
zeal  and  success.  .  .  .  All  this  is  signally  illustrated  in  the  general 
complexion  and  results  of  the  philosophy  of  Descartes  and 
Spinoza,  notwithstanding  the  garb  of  dogmatic  idealism  with 
which  their  doctrine  is  more  or  less  completely  invested.  .  .  . 
Leibniz,  the  one  man  who,  thoroughly  conversant  with  the 
mathematical  and  physical  science  of  his  time,  and  also  with 
ancient  as  well  as  with  modern  philosophy,  towered  above  all 
others  of  the  two  centuries  between  which  his  life  was  divided, 
in  the  matter  of  philosophic  insight,  continued,  while  correcting 
Descartes'  and  Spinoza's  error  of  conception,  to  employ  for  the 
Absolute  the  term  which  they  had  used.  He  called  it  substance, 
but  then  declared,  'Substance  is  Action'.  .  .  .  And  we  may 
say  that,  corresponding  to  this  defect  in  expression,  the  grand 
defect  of  Leibniz's  whole  doctrine  arises  from  the  presence  in  it 
of  a  mechanistic  element,  not  reduced  into  harmony  with  the 
main  spiritualistic  tendency.  .  .  .  Even  more  signally,  though 
in  a  very  different  fashion,  is  our  thesis  respecting  the  prevailing 
character  of  philosophy  before  Kant's  time  illustrated  in  the 
history  of  British  inquiry.  .  .  .  The  original  direction  of  Kant's 
mind  was  thus  not  exclusively,  or  even  mainly,  toward  'meta- 
physical,' or  technically  philosophical,  problems.  .  .  .  The 
growing  influence  of  his  predilection  for  physical  inquiries,  and 
of  his  increased  and  absorbing  study  of  British  writers,  such  as 
Newton,  Shaftesbury,  Hutcheson  and  Hume, '  led  him  to  declare ' 
that  'the  genuine  method  of  metaphysics  is  substantially  ident- 
ical with  that  which  Newton  introduced  into  physical  science.' 
.  .  .  .  Metaphysics  must  find  its  place  'on  the  lowly  ground  of 
experience  [sic]  and  common  sense.'  Its  principal  work  is  to 
analyze  the  'confused'  contents  of  consciousness,  or  our  'ideas.' 
.  .  .  Here  Kant  touches  philosophical  low-water.  ...  In 
1763,  he  already  gives  marked  evidence  of  the  disturbance  in 
his  thought  caused  by  Hume's  negative  conclusions  respecting 
the  nature  of  scientific  causation  or  law.  .  .  .  'Anytliing  might 


U 


I 


266 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


267 


be  the  cause  of  anything.'  In  this  way  scientific  law  was  evis- 
cerated of  all  rational  significance.  .  .  .  The  main  starting-point 
of  the  'Critique  of  Pure  Reason'  is  to  be  found  in  the  results  of 
British  sensational  empiricism,  as  formulated  by  Hume.  The 
work  has  then  a  double  object  or  result,  a  proximate  or  immed- 
iate and  a  remote  or  indirect  one.  Of  these,  again,  the  former 
is  two-fold,  consisting  (a)  in  establishing  the  at  least  formal 
dependence  of  sensible  knowledge,  and  especially  of  pure  mathe- 
matical and  physical  science,  on  intellectual  or  spiritual,  as  well 
as  mechanico-sensible,  conditions,  and  (6)  in  enforcing  the  truth 
that  the  conceptions  and  method  of  physical  science,  as  such, 
are  irrelevant  for  the  demonstration  or  disproof  of  truths  which 
lie  deeper  than,  or  beyond,  the  immediate  sphere  of  purely 
sensible  phenomena.  Through  the  first  or  immediate  result, 
especially  the  second  part  of  it,  the  remote  or  indirect  one  is 
reached,  which  is,  to  'secure  a  place  for  faith'.  .  .  .  And  this 
is  what  Kant  proceeds  to  do  in  his  second  and  third  Critiques. 
.  .  .  The  more  important  result  must,  and  undoubtedly  will, 
be  a  return  to  those  successors  of  Kant  in  whom  his  thought  is 
completed;  or,  still  better,  a  return  to  philosophy  and  its  peculiar 
method,  irrespective  of  all  the  names,  whether  ancient  or  modern, 
which  stand  for  its  highest  achievements."* 

Thanks  to  his  intellectual  environment,  then,  Kant 
identified  the  world  of  physical  science  with  the  world  of 
'theoreticar  knowledge;  hence  our  conception  of  *  sub- 
stance' is  relative,  being  applicable  to  phenomena  only. 
Categories  cannot  do  more  than  define  and  distinguish, 
because  subject  and  object  are  separate  from  one  another. 
Nevertheless,  space  and  time,  "energies  of  the  mind,'' 
constitute  a  living  bond  between  the  thinker  and  his 
object,  the  product  of  an  active,  spiritual  function. 
They  imply  the  presence  and  potency  of  '  understanding,' 
but  merely  to  a  limited  degree.  Causality,  for  example, 
must  be  restricted  to  simple  time-relation.  This  mech- 
anico-sensible   interpretation    exhausts    its    theoretical 

*  Pp.  29-42. 


significance.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  this 
would  reduce  the  category  to  the  level  of  a  product  of 
composition,  and  render  it  secondary,  is,  as  Kant  says, 
"a  challenge  to  reflection."  The  origin  of  "this  unity 
is  none  other  than  the  unity  of  pure  self-consciousness."* 
In  other  words, 

"The  notion  of  a  causal  relation  as  existing  between  successive 
phenomena,  or  between  successive  aspects  of  the  same  phenom- 
enon, is  the  result,  not  of  our  perception,  but  of  our  conception. 
Hume  is  right  in  saying  that  we  never  '^perceive''  any  necessary, 
or  any  other  real,  connection  between  phenomena  or  'objects.' 
.  .  .  Indeed,  the  notion  of  nature  itself  is  a  priori;  it  is  our  notion, 
our  creation;  and  the  categories,  which  determine  the  form  of  the 
universal  laws  of  nature,  are  but  the  constituent  elements  of 
this  mind-created  notion  itself. "f 

Necessarily,  then,  Kant  implies  that  the  range  of 
sensible  knowledge  is  "less  extensive  than  the  field  of 
absolute  reality."t  Phenomena  are  not  noumena. 
Nevertheless,  the  latter  possess  no  objective  significance, 
and  therefore  metaphysics  is  a  delusion.  Thus,  we  are 
left  with  a  flagrant  contradiction  or,  rather,  with  a 
vacuous  verbalism. 

"A  pure  subject  or  a  pure  object  is  not  only  unknown,  but 
inconceivable.  It  is  pure  nonsense.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore, 
that  if  the  realm  of  " things-in-themselves "  or  of  "noumena" 
(or  both)  is  made  up  of  pure  subjects  and  pure  objects,  they  are 
"unknowable,"  and  that,  as  Kant  declares,  'it  is  impossible  for 
us  to  conceive  how,  even  if  we  cannot  deny  that,  they  exist.' "§ 

Therefore, 

"Had  Kant  carried  his  work  far  enough  to  examine  and  recog- 
nize that  all  self-consciousness  is  in  itself,  instead  of  stopping 

*  P.  108. 
t  Pp.  117-18. 
t  P.  181. 
§  P.  199. 


^t 


268 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 


short  with  the  mere  recognition  of  the  'formaV  or  'logicaV 
necessity  of  self-consciousness  to  sensible  consciousness,  his  practical 
conception  of  noumena  would,  on  the  one  hand,  have  been  less 
incomplete  and  mechanical,  and,  on  the  other,  instead  of  being 
merely  practical,  it  would  have  been  also  theoretical;  'faith' 
would  have  been  transformed  into,  or  recognized  as,  knowledge."* 

Kant's  "arbitrary  major  premise,"  that  there  can  be 
no  knowledge  except  what  is  "  presented  to  consciousness 
in  and  through  sense  affections,"!  vitiated  his  entire 
analysis,  and  prevented  him  from  seeing  the  ultimate 
implications  of  his  own  procedure.  In  sum,  conse- 
quently, his  criticism  "absolutely  fails  to  touch  the  real 
foundations  or  the  real  superstructure  of  philosophy."! 

Despite  all  this,  however,  the  practical  issue  of  the 
demonstration — that  metaphysics  has  nothing  to  say 
pro  or  con  respecting  the  existence  of  its  ideal  objects — 
by  no  means  results  in  a  barren  negative.  For, 
"pure  reason  is  not  only  receptively  cognitive,  it  is 
also  legislative."  So  "arises  for  man  the  absolute  prac- 
tical necessity  of  regarding  himself  as  possessing  a  nature, 
and  belonging  to  a  world,  which  are  more  than  sensible. "§ 
In  shiort,  Kant  was  struggling  to  become  the  intellectual 
redeemer  of  his  times,  working  "toward  the  region  of 
larger  light  and  more  catholic  comprehension. "|| 

Confined  by  the  prejudices  of  an  unhistorical  age, 
he  "was  undoubtedly  right,  when,  in  the  last  paragraph 
of  his  book,  rejecting  as  ineffectual  the  *  dogmatic  method  ^ 
of  the  'celebrated  Wolff'  and  the  'sceptical  method  of 
David  Hume,'  and  practically  treating  these  two  as  the 

*  P.  203. 
t  P.  217. 
t  P.  219. 
§  P.  267. 
II  Pp.  270-1. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


269 


only  methods  having  historic  existence,  he  confidently 
recommended  the  'critical  way,'  and  declared": 

*'The  critical  way  alone  is  still  open.  .  .  .  The  reader  .  .  . 
may  now  judge  whether  .  .  .  that,  which  many  centuries  could 
not  accomplish  may  not  be  attained  before  the  lapse  of  the 
present  century,  namely,  the  complete  satisfaction  of  human 
reason  respecting  those  problems  which  have  at  all  times  aroused 
its  curiosity,  though  hitherto  in  vain." 

And,  Morris  adds,  marking  his  final  position,  "Fifty- 
one  years  after  these  words  were  written  Hegel  died.  .  .  . 
The  "courage  of  knowledge"  was  absolute.  Kant's 
prophecy  seemed  to  have  been  fulfilled."* 

Familiarity  with  the  Kantian  succession,  and  special 
study  of  the  Critique  of  Pure  Reason,  thus  led  Morris  to 
the  conclusion  that 

''Individual  or  unipersonal  self-consciousness  reveals  itself 
as  not  merely  numericallj^  one  and  self-identical,  but  as  the  one 
which  pervades  the  many,  the  individual  which  is  one  with  the 
universal,  and  which  makes  or  has  the  many  and  the  universal 
as  an  organic  part  of  consciousness  itself.  .  .  .  This  larger  self 
is  divine;  it  is  universal,  living,  effective  reason,  it  is  absolute 
Spirit.  The  individual's  sufficiency  'to  think  anything  of  him- 
self' is,  thus,  'of  God.'  It  comes  from  his  participation  in  a 
light  which  can  be,  in  its  completeness,  no  less  all-embracing 
and  all-creative  than  divine  reason. "f 

In  short,  the  ideal  is  the  living  truth  of  real  things. 
He  was  enabled  to  restore  theism,  and  to  find  in  God 
the  prius  of  everything  possible  to  a  human  experience. 
A  valid  theory  of  knowledge  cannot  but  lead  to  the 
theistic  conception  of  the  universe.  Morris  found  that 
the  Kantian  criticism,  when  its  internal  logic  was  carried 
through  to  the  bitter  end,  justified  the  coercive  postul- 


*  P.  272. 
t  Pp.  130-1. 


Cf.  the  remarkable  passage,  pp.  124-30. 


I 


il 


270 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


ates  which  had  disciplined  him  in  youth.  But,  in 
justifying  them,  it  transformed  them,  thus  preserving 
the  principle  of  freedom  always  championed  by  '  Inde- 
pendency.' Old  things  had  become  new.  The  con- 
sequence was  that  he  began  to  achieve  a  victory  over 
his  own  doubts.  He  would  have  agreed  with  Mr. 
Bradley: 

"I  will  end  with  something  not  very  different,  something 
perhaps  more  certainly  the  essential  message  of  Hegel.  Outside 
of  spirit  there  is  not,  and  there  cannot  be,  any  reality,  and,  the 
more  that  anything  is  spiritual,  so  much  the  more  is  it  veritably 
real."* 

But  he  found  it  quite  natural,  if  not  inevitable,  to 
conceive  of  God  as  self-conscious,  and  to  identify  God 
with  the  Absolute.  That  is  to  say,  the  theological 
interest  swayed  him,  somewhat  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
purely  speculative.  This  appears  very  plainly  in  the 
single  constructive  work  he  w^as  to  leave. 

As  we  have  noted  already,  it  was  an  unfortunate 
coincidence  that  the  sole  book  in  which  Morris  gave 
free  play  to  his  ow^n  ideas  should  have  been  a  series  of 
lectures,  delivered  upon  a  Foundation  instituted  for 
apologetic  purposes.  The  occasion  compelled  him  to 
consult  edification,  and  philosophy  has  no  more  to  do 
with  edification  than  chemistry.  But,  the  Deed  of 
Gift  of  the  Ely  Foundation  in  Union  Theological  Semin- 
ary, New  York,  provides  that 

''The  course  of  lectures  given  on  this  foundation  is  to  comprise 
any  topics  that  serve  to  establish  the  proposition  that  Christ- 
ianity is  a  rehgion  from  God,  or  that  it  is  the  perfect  and  final 
form  of  religion  for  man. 

"Among  the  subjects  discussed  may  be, — 

*  Appearance  and  Reality,  p.  552  (1st  edition). 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


271 


"The  Nature  and  Need  of  a  Revelation; 

"The  Character  and  Influence  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles; 

"The  Authenticity  and  Credibility  of  the  Scriptures,  Miracles, 
and  Prophecy; 

"The  Diffusion  and  Benefits  of  Christianity;  and 

"The  Philosophy  of  Religion  in  its  Relation  to  the  Christian 
System." 

Now,  these  are  very  general  terms  and,  like  all  general 
terms,  their  interpretation  cannot  but  be  relative  to  the 
age  in  w^hich  they  were  formulated.  Hence,  it  is  im- 
portant to  notice  that  the  Deed  was  dated  at  New  York, 
May  8th,  1865.  At  this  time  the  forces  of  Pietism  and 
Rationalism  were  still  locked  in  struggle.  As  has  been 
admirably  said, 

"The  breach  between  the  liberal  and  conservative  tendencies 
of  religious  thought  in  this  country  came  at  a  time  when  the 
philosophical  reconstruction  was  already  well  under  way  in 
Europe.  The  debate  continued  until  long  after  the  biblical- 
critical  movement  was  in  progress.  The  controversy  was 
conducted  upon  both  sides  in  practically  total  ignorance  of  these 
facts.  .  .  .  The  men  in  either  camp  proceeded  from  assump- 
tions which  are  now  impossible  to  the  men  of  both.  It  was  not 
till  after  the  Civil  War  that  American  students  of  theology 
began  in  numbers  to  study  in  Germany."* 

Accordingly,  while  Morris  chose  the  last  subject 
mentioned  in  the  Deed,  it  is  worthy  of  record  that  he 
now^here  betrays  any  sense  of  fretfulness  under  the 
limitations  of  the  occasion.  Indeed,  he  buckles  to  his 
task  con  amore.  Throughout  the  course,  he  makes 
practically  no  reference  to  the  results  of  higher  criti- 
cism,t  but  proceeds  to  read  the  main  doctrines  of  Pro- 
testant dogmatics  in  terms  of  w^hat  may  be  loosely  called 

*  An  Outline  of  the  History  of  Christian  Thought  Since  Kant,  E.  C. 
Moore,  pp.  18-19. 
t  Cf .  pp.  3  f . 


m 


272 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


Hegelianism  of  the  extreme  Right  wing.  This  serves  to 
explain  the  plan  of  the  work.  After  an  introductory 
lecture  devoted  to  discussion  of  the  relations  between 
"Religion  and  InteUigence,"  the  "Philosophic  Theory 
of  Knowledge,"  and  the  "Absolute  Object  of  Intelli- 
gence, or  the  Philosophic  Theory  of  Reality,"  are  con- 
sidered. Then,  following  somewhat  the  beaten  track 
of  dogmatic  theology,  the  body  of  the  book*  is  occupied 
with  the  "Biblical  Theory  of  Knowledge;  Biblical 
Ontology — the  Absolute,  the  World,  and  Man."  The 
concluding  lecture  reviews  the  "  Comparative  Philosophic 
Content  of  Christianity."  We  are  thus  forewarned 
that  we  must  not  anticipate  a  philosophy  of  religion, 
but  merely  an  account  of  the  manner  and  degree  in  which 
the  *  substance'  of  Christianity  can  be  aligned  with 
systematic  reflection.  It  is  essential  to  bear  this  pur- 
pose in  mind,  because  the  author  is  dominated  by  it 
thoroughly — the  more  that  it  consorted  with  his  pro- 
foundest  spiritual  experiences  and  needs.  The  atmo- 
sphere is  that  of  a  pietistic,  but  not  dogmatic,  orthodoxy, 
while  the  perspective  is  that  of  absolute  idealism, 
mediated  theistically.  Morris  stands  forth  as  a  "  Christ- 
ian spiritualist,"  where  'spirituality'  implies  a  definite 
philosophical  creed,  and  this  almost  in  the  sense  of  a 
gospel. 

He  conceived  the  problem  of  Philosophy  of  Religion 
clearly,  but  elaborated  it  somewhat  narrowly. 

"The  essence  of  religion  is  contained,  for  intelligence,  in 
certain  presuppositions  respecting  the  absolute  nature  and 
relations  of  things,  with  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  which  religion, 
as  an  object  of  intelligence,  stands  or  falls.  It  presupposes  that 
absolute  being  is  Spiritual,  and  that  Divine  Spirit  is  the  source 

*  164  pp.  of  a  total  of  281  pp. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


273 


and  king  and  goal  of  all  dependent  being.  ...  It  implies  that 
man  is,  in  his  true  nature  and  intention,  a  spirit,  and  that  he 
is  able,  required,  and  above  all,  privileged,  to  enter  into  living 
relations  to  the  Divine  Spirit, — in  which  relations  more  espec- 
ially, rehgion  directly  consists  or  has  its  immediate  life.*  .  .  . 
Our  purpose  and  method  will  require  us,  accordingly,  first 
succinctly  to  indicate  the  general  nature  and  results  of  the 
philosophic  theory  of  knowledge  and  of  the  absolute  or  final 
object  of  knowledge;  and  then  to  seek  to  state  .  .  .  the  con- 
ceptions respecting  the  same  topics,  which  are  presupposed  or 
proclaimed  by  Christianity;  with  a  view  to  showing  that  the 
Christian  conceptions  are  not  repugnant  to  the  conceptions  of 
philosophy,  that  the  former  are,  rather,  the  fulfilment  and 
enrichment  of  the  latter."! 

Starting  with  these  norms,  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
the  treatment  is  tinctured  strongly  by  a  tendency  to 
edification — unfortunately. J  As  a  result,  Love  becomes 
the  ultimate  ontological  principle;  and,  because  Love  is 
perfect,  it  affords  an  objective  basis  for  the  spiritual 
life,  for  morality  and  religion.  'God  is  Love.'  There- 
fore, 

"We  find  Christianity  declaring,  and  philosophy  assenting  to 
and  confirming  the  declaration,  that  all  things  live  and  move 
and  have  their  being  in  God;  but  not  that  they  constitute  God."§ 

Thus,  in  contrast  to  Browning,  of  whom  he  reminds 
one  occasionally,  Morris  does  not  sever  Love  from  knowl- 
edge, and  place  them  in  antagonism.  He  realized  that 
the  'heart'  must  learn  to  speak  the  language  of  the 
*head,'  if  the  permanent  principles  which  underlie  and 

♦  P.  16. 
t  P.  19. 

X  Of.  e.  g.,  pp.  57,  91,  96,  98  f.,  184  f.,  258  f.,  267f.,  303f.  "  It  is  not  the 
business  of  philosophy  to  praise  the  universe  or  to  exalt  the  satisfactions 
of  goodness."  The  Value  and  Destiny  of  the  Individual,  B.  Bosanquet, 
p.  327. 

§  P.  203. 

19 


Id 


III 


274 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


275 


impart  strength  to  faith  were  to  be  brought  into  the 
light  of  distinct  consciousness  and  dehvered  from  the 
accidents  with  which,  at  first,  they  are  necessarily 
identified.*     Or,  as  Browning  himself  put  it, 

"I  needs  must  blend  the  quality  of  man 
With  quality  of  God,  and  so  assist 
Mere  human  sight  to  understand  my  Life."t 

A  distinct  tendency  to  what  some  have  called  *intel- 
lectualism'  therefore  runs  parallel  to  the  appeal  to 
Love.J  And  in  so  far  as  Morris  effects  a  reconciliation 
between  the  two,  he  succeeds  by  an  unconscious  applic- 
ation of  the  New  England  conscience.  The  moralistic 
element  differentiates  him  from  his  British  colleagues, 
Green  the  most  conspicuous  exception.  This  had  been, 
not  merely  his  heritage,  but  the  teaching  of  his  German 
masters,  Trendelenburg  particularly. 

''The  genus  of  motion  is  not  change  of  place,  but  fulfilment  of 
purpose.  .  .  .  This  process  we  have  already  termed  'organic' 
.  .  .  Here  Nature  shows  explicitly  that  her  being  is  grounded  in 
spirit,  that  her  life  is  the  life  (Plotinus  used  to  say,  the  'sleeping 
life')  ,of  spirit.  She  thus  points  everywhere  backwards  and  up- 
wards to  the  Absolute  Spirit  as  the  ever-present  and  omnipresent 
ground  and  creative  source  of  her  own  existence.  But  also, 
and  in  particular,  through  the  series  of  her  forms,  which  advance 
through  a  rising  scale  in  ideal  content,  worth,  and  significance, 
she  points  to  the  full  and  explicit  development  of  finite  self- 
consciousness,  as  in  man,  as  the  proximate  end  to  which  all  her 
varied  activity  is  (again)  but  '  instrumental.'  .  .  .  And  so  it  is 
that,  while  man  is  called  on  to  work  out  his  own  salvation,  he  has 
also  the  assured  knowledge  that  God  works  in  him  both  to  will 
and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure.    The  great  glory  of  man,  accord- 

*  Cf .  The  Social  Philosophy  and  Religion  of  Comte,  E.  Caird,  pp.  186  f . 
(1st  ed.). 

t  Poetical  Works,  Vol.  XVI.,  p.  83. 

t  Cf.,  e.  (7m  pp.  92,  95,  208,  231,  252,  259,  304. 


ing  to  the  Christian  conception  of  him,  is  that  he  is  a  co-labourer 
with  God."* 

Thus, 

"The  contrast  between  human  and  divine  intelligence  is  then 
this:  the  former  has  for  its  first  or  immediate  object  the  physical 
universe,  as  a  language,  the  true  reading  of  which  brings  it  to 
the  present  knowledge  of  the  divine  Word,  as  the  truth,  or 
absolute  causal  reality  of  the  universe;  the  latter,  on  the  con- 
trary, has  for  its  first  object,  the  absolute  object,  the  Word, 
and  only — if  we  may  thus  express  it — in  the  second  instance, 
or  through  the  Word,  by  and  through  whom  alone  the  physical 
worlds  subsist,  has  it  these  latter  for  its  object."t 

Therefore, 

"The  true  and  perfect  doing,  in  which  consists  the  true  and 
perfect  living,  is  a  conscious,  purposeful,  and  wilUng  activity, 
which  (on  man's  part)  accomplishes  the  will  of  God,  the  absolute 
law  of  being,  and  so  only  effectually  reaUzes  its  own  nature.  .  .  . 
The  will,  therefore,  which  identified  itself  with  the  will  of  God, — 
the  will  which,  primarily,  or  in  the  first  instance,  wills  nought 
but  God,  and  then  wills  all  else  from  the  point  of  view  of  God  or 
of  the  absolute  and  divine  will, — possesses  that  absolute  sub- 
stance of  freedom,  wherein  consists  the  perfected  reality  of  the 
spirit.  This  is  freedom  through  knowledge,  love,  and  practical 
reahzation  of  'the  truth.' "t 

Stated  in  Christian  terms,  then, — and  Morris  attempts 
no  more  here,—  religion 

"Does  not  simply  consist  in  being  informed  of  and  then  form- 
ally accepting  a  'scheme'  of  rescue  from  the  damning  conse- 
quences of  sin.  It  is  not  merely  salvation  from  something;  it  is 
also  the  salvation  of  something,  viz.,  of  the  true  man.  It  is 
the  creative-redemptive  realization  of  the  perfect  man  in  living 
union  with  the  Absolute,  with  God.  And  if  the  ethics  which 
it  involves  is  not  'human  ethics,'  then  no  such  ethics  ever  existed 

*  Pp.  83^,  207. 

t  Pp.  157-8. 

t  Pp.  136,  242-3. 


276 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


277 


or  can,  without  an  essential  change  in  the  nature  of  man,  ever 
exist."* 

Thanks  in  greater  part,  no  doubt,  to  the  occasion  and 
to  the  apologetic  object  of  the  lectures,  the  argument  as 
a  whole  is  strained  in  the  interests  of  faith.  Thus,  the 
book  represents  a  transition  stage  in  philosophy  of  re- 
ligion. In  one  sense,  it  is  too  theological,  in  another,  it 
is  not  theological  enough.  For  this  reason,  I  take  it, 
the  fundamental  problem — the  relation  between  per- 
sonality (as  attributed  to  God)  and  the  Absolute— is 
scarcely  faced.  Consequently,  although  the  personality 
of  God  is  strongly  affirmed,  it  remains,  all  things  con- 
sidered, a  bildlicher  Ausdmck,  a  pictorial  declaration  of 
the  religious  consciousness,  an  'appearance'  rather  than 
the  Reality.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  Morris  con- 
cerned himself  too  exclusively  with  the  ideal  aspect  of 
religion,  and  omitted  to  stress  the  factors  contributed 
by  Nature  and  Society.  He  had  forgotten  Goethe's 
maxim: 


(( 


Willst  du  ins  Unendliche  schreiten, 
Geh  nur  im  Endlichen  nach  aller  Seiten. 


)} 


He  reposed  too  little  confidence  in  the  'finite'  and, 
therefore,  did  not  penetrate  it  sufficiently.  The  desire 
to  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  storm  remained 
strong.  In  short,  he  had  not  contrived  to  divest  himself 
completely  of  Peistic  influences  and,  to  this  extent, 
failed  to  come  to  close  quarters  with  the  methods  of 
Theism.  Thus,  while  there  is  no  sort  of  vacillation, 
inconsistencies  appear.  Of  course,  the  drift  is  towards 
speculative  idealism,  but  with  lapses  into  an  ethical 
theism   which,   occasionalh',   come   perilously   near   in- 

*  P.  25L 


tuitionalism,  or  mysticism,  or  an  emotional  theism,  as 
the  case  may  be.  Thus  the  book  offers,  as  it  were,  an 
eirenicon  between  the  phases  of  his  own  personal  experi- 
ence, rather  than  a  systematic  philosophy  of  religion. 
As  with  T.  H.  Green,  the  reaction  against  empiricism 
forms  the  point  of  departure  and,  also  like  Green, 
^lorris  portends  the  kind  of  idealism  which  found  an 
expression  almost  classic  in  Lux  Mundi.  He  is  not 
attempting  to  furnish  "the  natural  corrective"  to  his 
youthful  "dogmatic  system."  Hence,  he  inclines  to 
anticipate  "the  results  of  a  more  advanced  stage  than" 
he  "has  yet  attained,"  and  goes  too  far  in  the  direction 
of  "the  form  under  which  feeling  discounts  the  future 
gains  of  thought."* 

Whatever  we  may  think  now  of  the  Hegelian  attitude 
towards  religion,  it  was  a  great  gain  when,  a  generation 
ago,  Morris  found  himself  able  to  adopt  it,  and  to  de- 
clare, almost  with  passion,  that,  in  the  last  analysis, 
the  object  of  religion  is  identical  with  the  object  of 
philosophy. 

"The  philosophic  and  the  religious  conception  run  hand  in 
hand."t 

And  if,  sometimes,  he  forgets  that,  while  religion  may — 
even  must — demand  immediate  personal  relation  to 
God,  philosophy  must  invariably  try  to  exhibit  the 
nature  of  the  Absolute  mediately,  he  nevertheless  clears 
the  ground  for  discussions  that  had  been  impossible 
under  the  Puritan  dispensation.  English  and  American 
individualism  was  prone  to  consider  God  as  outside  of, 
or  'over  against,'  men.  Accordingly,  the  lower  and  less 
adequate  forms  of  anthropomorphism  came  to  possess 
undue,  if  not  fatal,  prominence. 

*  Cf.  The  Evolution  of  Religion,  E.  Caird,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  291  f. 
t  P.  280. 


Hi 


!l! 


278 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


279 


"Absolute  Being  is  here  the  object  of  their  consciousness; 
and,  as  such,  is  for  them  pre-eminently  the  'other,'  a  'beyond,' 
nearer  or  further  off,  more  or  less  friendly  or  frightful  or 
alarming."* 

Further,  no  matter  with  what  disguises  of  refinement, 
this  standpoint  was  maintained  in  essentials  by  the 
exponents  of  'Design,'  Tirst  Cause,'  and  the  like, 
whose  doctrines  furnished  Morris  staple  training  at  first. 

''Meanwhile  the  conceptions  of  matter  and  of  nature  had  been 
passing  beyond  the  phases  at  which  the  argument  for  final 
causes  took  them.  The  relationship  of  a  creator  to  the  creatures 
as  that  of  an  architect  or  manager  to  his  works  was  no  longer 
deemed  adequate,  nor  did  it  seem  the  highest  praise  that  he  had 
made  the  best  of  somewhat  recalcitrant  materials.  The  great 
mechanician  is  only  a  mode,  and  an  insufficient  mode,  of  con- 
ceiving God's  supremacy;  and  even  if  it  be  specially  suitable  to 
the  genius  of  a  utilitarian  age,  it  cannot  rank  as  more  than  an 
analogy  of  the  divine  mode  of  action.  .  .  .  Rehgion  had  little 
to  gain  by  these  demonstrations;  at  least  any  rehgion  which 
had  real  vitality  and  w^as  not  a  form  of  words  parasitically  seeking 
to  gain  support  from  these  growths."! 

Thus,  it  was  a  great  gain,  I  repeat,  that  a  man  of 
profound  piety  should  have  seen  this  and,  seeing  it, 
have  accepted  the  issue  when  and  where  he  did.  Morris 
had  come  to  realize  that  philosophy  cannot  furnish, 
much  less  justify,  any  object  out  of  all  relation  to  ex- 
perience; his  mysticism  is  the  measure  merely  of  his 
religious  vitality  here.  And,  even  granted  that  the 
implications  altogether  outrun  the  theological  philosophy 
of  the  Ely  Lectures,  they  were  raised  notwithstanding. 

His  problem  was  to  outline  a  reasonable  faith,  not  as 
yet  to  formulate  a  systematic  philosophy  of  religion. 

*  History  of  Philosophy,  Hegel,  Vol.  I.,  p.  62  (Eng.  trans.);  Werke 
Vol.  XIIL,  p.  77. 

t  Lectures  and  Essays  on  Natural  Theology  and  Ethics,  William  Wallace 
pp.  9-10. 


Accordingly,  he  witnesses  that  religion  involves  emotions 
peculiar  to  itself,  and  also  that,  eventually,  these  emo- 
tions produce  coercive  intellectual  persuasions.  Such 
persuasions,  in  turn,  so  far  as  they  outstrip  knowledge, — 
as  they  do, — belong  to  the  realm  of  faith.  Nevertheless, 
they  find  expression  in  propositions  of  metaphysical 
significance.  Consequently,  Morris  adopts  a  definite 
attitude  which,  whatever  its  infusion  of  emotionalism, 
may  be  defended  as  essential  to  religion.  Although 
his  statements  are  not  always  crisp,  he  is  thoroughly 
aware  that  religion  demands  the  existence  of  its  object, 
and  this  not  simply  as  an  object,  but  as  the  object  of 
worship,  because  the  embodiment  of  the  ideal. 

"All  tilings  are  yours,  and  ye  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is 
God's." 

In  other  words,  the  assurance  characteristic  of  religion 
consists  more  in  a  quality  of  experience  than  in  specific 
beliefs.  Unless  the  one  perfect  reality  existed,  life  would 
be  an  illusion;  but,  seeing  that  this  reality  exists,  life 
shares  in  its  completeness  already.  Thus,  the  religious 
man  should  never  so  far  forget  himself  as  to  condemn 
the  world;  for,  properly  viewed,  this  is  the  place  where 
salvation  has  its  seat  now.  Grasp  this,  and  you  grasp 
everything.     Man  is  man,  but  vaster. 

Again,  if  this  conviction  have  a  solid  basis  in  faith, 
it  follows  that  the  object  of  worship  must  possess  a 
character  unassailable  by  the  defects  of  time  and  sense. 
So,  keeping  close  to  the  Hegelian  view,  Morris  holds 
that,  in  the  Christ,  we  have  a  definite  realization  of  the 
unity  between  God  and  man.  And  this  implies  that  the 
Christ  manifested  the  whole  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily.     The  finite  person  disappears  in  the  adequate 


280 


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GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


281 


revelation   of   the   infinite   individual.     Thanks   to   his 
mysticism,   Morris   hardly   exhibits   the   terms   of  this 
paradox.     I  doubt  whether  he  was  aware  of  them.     He 
remains  too  much  of  the  religionist,  has  become  too 
little    of    the     metaphysician.      Notwithstanding,     he 
is    right    to    a    certain    extent.     As    concerns  theory, 
religion  cannot  well  escape  mysticism.     Demanding  an 
existent  infinite,  it  seems  bound  to  meet  the    demand 
by  aflSrming  that  the  present  life  can  find  its  truth  only 
in  a  higher  existence,  which  the  bare  fact  of  this  world 
already    postulates.     Nay,    an    emotional    ontologism 
becomes  the  court  of  last  resort— a  strange  contradiction. 
Thus,  while  Morris  went  all  the  way  with  an  adequate 
view  of  religion,  his  traditions  would  not  permit  him  to 
go  more  than  a  mile  with   an  adequate  metaphysic. 
Those  points,  at  least,  deserve  note.     Moralism  rears 
its  head  still,  as  if  current  conventions  in  conduct  were 
the  sole  pathway  to  heaven.     Individualism  still  has 
its  say,  as  if  the  ideal  could  not  be  realized  except  on  the 
plan  native  to  New  England.     The  appeal  to  coercive 
emotion  is  still  magistral,  as  if  chosen  objects  or  values, 
themselves    characteristically    temporal,    could    furnish 
all-sufl^icient    predicates    for    the    universal.     In    short, 
forgetting  the  paradox  central  to  religion,  in  his  anxiety 
to  affirm  Christian  truth,  Morris  tends  to  take  the  king- 
dom  of  heaven  by  merit,   little  recking  that,   in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  human  'perfection'  is  as  filthy  rags. 
Being  too  righteous,  he  is  not  religious  enough.     For, 
he  would  fain  reduce  his  faith  to  a  form  of  knowledge, 
if  not  to  a  species  of  activity. 

Accordingly,  in  the  stage  at  which  he  had  now  arrived, 
he  could  never  compass  a  consistent  philosophy  of  re- 
ligion.    It    scarcely    occurred    to    him    that    religious 


experience  always  'steps  down'  the  Absolute.     Man, 
being  man,   clothes   upon  God  with  certain  temporal 
qualities— a    Fichtean    'striving'    for    example— which 
have  no  apphcation  to  complete  individuality  from  a 
metaphysical  point  of  view.     Thus,  although  the  recent 
doctrine  of  the  finitude  of  God  is   unsuspected,   and 
luckily,— for  it  raises  greater  diflBculties  than  it  removes, 
—the  simple  identification  of  God  with  the  Absolute 
fails  to  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  because  the  relevant 
phenomena  of  religion  are  not  subjected  to  thorough 
criticism.     Nay  more,  Morris  speaks  as  if  a  single  type 
of  religious  experience  were  a  valid  representation  of 
the  Absolute.     Indeed,  the  transcendent  aspect  of  his 
theism  exerts  such  strong  bias  that  the  main  conclusion 
reposes  upon  a  hypothetical  antecedent.     Accordingly, 
vindication   of   religious   conviction   postpones   inquiry 
into  the  fundamental  organization  of  experience  as  a 
whole.     Not  that  the  problems  are  evaded;  they  are 
there,  and  are  liberated  so  far  from  Calvinistic  presup- 
positions.    But  complete  independence  in  metaphysical 
inquiry  still  lags,  chiefly  because  the  reaction  against 
empiricism  is  so   sharp  that  recourse  to  a  theological 
position  ensues  too  easily.     Warmth  of  faith  tends  to 
induce  satisfaction  with  a  supernal  Ultimate,  a  Being 
that  suffices  a  religious  consciousness,  but  not  one  by 
any  means  capable  of  immediate  identification  with  the 
Absolute. 

It  is  plain,  then,  that,  thanks  to  his  labour  with  philo- 
sophy of  religion,  Morris  was  progressing,  and  progressing 
rapidly.  But  the  end  was  not  yet,  nor  was  it  to  be  reached, 
death  interposing.  Intellectual  courage  abounded  and, 
with  it,  keen  speculative  interest;  opportunity  to  fare 
farther  and  more  freely  from  inbred,  limiting  ideas, 
was  never  granted. 


!        1 


i  I 


282 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


Finally,  the  last  book,  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  the  State 
and  of  History,  merits  notice  as  an  admirable,  if  all  too 
brief,  exposition  of  these  masterpieces.  The  short 
Introduction  does  indeed  defend  Hegel's  attitude  towards 
ethics,  but  so  succinctly  that  Morris  leaves  no  place 
for  his  own  views.  The  thorough  mastery  of  Hegers 
text  and  meaning  makes  one  regret  the  more — especially 
when  the  date  of  publication  is  recalled — that  he  did 
not  omit  the  Philosophy  of  History,  in  order  to  give  fuller 
treatment  to  the  Philosophie  des  Rechts,  then  misunder- 
stood sadly  in  the  English  countries.  It  is  true  that, 
in  the  essay,  "The  Philosophy  of  the  State  and  of  His- 
tory,"* contributed  to  the  volume.  Methods  of  Teaching 
History,  he  approached  the  subject  suo  more,  but  again 
most  briefly.     He  w^hets  one's  appetite. 

''History  is  not  simply  (multifarious)  events.  It  is  the  logic 
of  events.  Historic  intelligence  is  not  merely  infonnation 
respecting  events.    It  is  the  comprehension  of  their  logic."t 

The  logic  of  history  is  a  great  theme,  but  the  essay 
goes  no  further  than  a  very  general  statement  of  some 
principles  of  idealism. 

"Philosophy  demonstrates  that  the  essential  and  all-deter- 
mining nature  of  intelhgence  is  to  be  self-conscious  reason. 
And  it  also  demonstrates  that  the  true  self-consciousness  is 
something  that  transcends  the  individual,  being  realized  only 
through  the  'objective'  consciousness  and  progressive  knowledge 
of  the  whole  universe  of  dependent  existence,  and  in  organic 
dependence  on  an  universal  and  absolute  self-consciousness.  .  .  . 
And  if  the  philosophy  that  one  have,  or  that  one  find  current, 
be  unfortunately  one-sided,  abstract,  and  inhospitable  toward 
certain  sides  of  that  whole  world  of  actuaUtv,  which  it  is  the 
sole  business  of  philosophy  to  comprehend,  yet  one  must  accept 

*  18  pp. 
t  P.  150. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


283 


it,  and  apply  it  as  far  as  it  will  go,  and  so  make  the  best  of  it.  .  .  . 
I  hasten  to  add  that,  when  this  is  done,  the  relative  truth,  and, 
within  its  peculiar  bounds,  the  important  truth  of  the  mechanical 
philosophy  in  its  apphcation  to  the  moral  world,  which  includes 
the  world  of  history,  will  be  fully  recognized.  No  one  can  shut 
his  eyes  to  the  mechanical  aspect  which  belongs  to  all  events 
whatsoever  that  occur  within  the  bounds  and  under  the  forms 
of  space  and  time,  including,  therefore,  the  events  of  history. 
But  the  eye  of  really  concrete,  cathohc,  and  all-embracing  philo- 
sophic science,  sees  that  the  mechanical  aspect  of  events  is  only 
an  aspect.  .  .  .  True  pliilosophy  perceives  that,  throughout 
the  universe  of  living  existence— and  this,  subject  to  exact 
definitions,  must  be  conceived  as  equivalent  to  the  whole  actual 
universe — the  mechanical  is  conditioned  by  and  logically  posterior 
to  the  organic ;  the  dead  is  the  product  of  the  living,  the  phenomen- 
al of  the  noumenal."* 

Hence,  although  Droysen  is  right  when  he  asserts 
that  "the  subject  of  history  is  the  universal  Ego  of 
humanity,"  or  that  history  is  the  moral  self-consciousness 
of  man  in  the  act  of  knowing  itself,  it  is  nevertheless 
equally  true  that  "the  concrete  form  in  which  this 
subject  lies  before  the  historian  and  student  of  history 
is  that  of  social  organizations  or  of  states."t  The  essay 
does  not  proceed  to  indicate  the  fundamental  relation 
between  these  two  'aspects,'  much  less  to  hint  at  the 
difficulties  to  be  surmounted.  At  the  first  blush,  the 
mere  statement  of  the  developmental  or  synthetic  point 
of  view  is  so  much  more  suggestive  than  the  individualism 
which  it  ousts,  that  the  incidental  problems,  inseparable 
from  adequate  zu  Ende  denken,  remain  in  concealment. 

Shortly  after  Morris  died,  The  Chronicle,  then  the 
bi-weekly  organ  "published  by  the  Students  of  the 
University  of  Michigan,"  printed  a  series  of  admirable 

*  Pp.  154,  157-S. 
t  P.  160. 


284 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


285 


papers,  entitled  "The  Ideal  and  the  Real:  Professor 
Morris's  Published  Writings."*  At  the  outset,  we  find 
this:  "The  present  writer,  it  should  be  said,  is  fully  aware 
that  the  published  writings  do  not  contain  all  of  their 
author's  best  and  most  fully  elaborated  philosophical 
opinions."!  Nothing  could  be  more  obvious.  The 
whole  available  evidence  tends  to  show  that  Morris's 
influence  as  a  man  and  teacher  greatly  surpassed  any- 
thing that  could  be  gathered  from  his  writings.  In 
fact,  when  death  overtook  him,  he  was  just  beginning  to 
find  his  feet  philosophically,  so  to  speak.  Idealism  as  a 
gospel  of  deliverance  from  a  faith  that  puzzled  sorely, 
because  it  was  at  once  outworn  and  yet  rightly  oriented, 
had  taken  complete  possession  of  him.  But  he  had  not 
yet  possessed  it,  so  as  to  apply  its  principles  to  some  of 
the  most  obscure  and  difficult  problems  of  experience. 
The  new  light  so  suffused  everything  with  its  golden 
glow  that  the  shadows  were  dissipated  too  speedily  and 
readily — they  could  not  obtrude.  And  it  must  be  re- 
membered, in  this  connection,  that  the  two  great  leaders 
of  British  idealism,  Morris's  contemporaries,  who 
exerted  most  potent  sway  over  their  pupils,  have  been 
charged  similarly,  despite  the  fact  that  the  more  favour- 
able circumstances  of  their  lives  enabled  them  to  devote 
themselves  exclusively  and  continuously  to  philosophy. 
Thomas  Hill  Green  who,  like  Morris,  died  prematurely, 
aged  forty-six,  deflected  English  thought,  and  even 
British  politics,  through  his  pupils. t     He,  too,  ^^  preached 

*  Vol.  XX.,  pp.  278  f.,  290  f.,  303  f.,  315  f.  They  were  unsigned,  but 
I  have  been  able  to  ascertain  that  the  author  was  Dr.  B.  F.  Burt. 

t  P.  278. 

X  As  I  recollect,  Edward  Caird  told  me,  in  1906,  that  some  fifty  of 
Green's  pupils  were  in  the  House  of  Commons  and,  I  think,  five  in  the 
Cabinet. 


Hegel  with  the  accent  of  a  Puritan."*  But,  probably 
because  he  also  was  possessed  by  a  gospel,  he  did  not 
experience  the  full  stress  of  diflSculties  such  as  were  to 
be  raised  in  the  next  generation  by  his  most  brilliant 
pupil,  Mr.  F.  H.  Bradley.f  Thanks  to  the  Puritan 
tradition,  and  to  the  sharp  reaction  against  empiricism,! 
he  won,  too  easily,  perhaps,  to  the  ultimacy  of  person- 
ahty,  with  its  identification  of  the  Absolute  and  God; 
he  passed  too  lightly  over  the  "self-contradiction  in 
principle"  inherent  in  morality,  viewed  as  a  final  cat- 
egory ;§  and  he  accepted  the  conviction  of  immortality 
on  grounds  that  seemed  to  some  theological  more  than 
philosophical. 

In  the  same  wav,  one  of  the  most  devoted  and  able 
pupils  of  Edward  Caird  has  recorded: 

"Some  will  always  regret  that  he  did  not  set  himself  rather 
more  directly  to  the  exposition  of  the  views  to  which  he  himself 
had  been  led,  instead  of  to  the  interpretation  and  criticism  of 
others.  He  might  then  have  dealt  more  specifically  with  some 
of  the  difficulties  that  are  felt  as  still  remaining  in  the  view  to 
which  he  leads  us — such  as  those  with  respect  to  the  reality  of 
time,  the  nature  of  evil,  the  relation  between  the  finite  and  the 
infinite,  and  similar  problems.  .  .  .  But  it  should  be  remembered 
that  it  was  his  main  business  to  introduce  what  was  almost  a 
new  way  of  thinking  to  EngUsh  readers;  and  even  his  enemies 
allow  that  in  this  at  least  he  was  successful.  Those  who  com- 
plain of  the  thinness  of  its  results  should  bear  in  mind  what  a 
young  and  tender  plant  our  British  idealism  still  is."ll 

*  Memoir  of  John  Nichol,  Wm.  Knight,  p.  150. 

t  Cf.  His  Appearance  and  Reality. 

X  The  conviction  that  this  rebound  had  gone  too  far  was  expressed, 
as  early  as  1889,  by  another  of  Green's  best  pupils.  Prof.  Samuel  Alex- 
ander, in  his  Moral  Order  and  Progress.  Curiously  enough,  this  was  the 
first  Green  Memorial  Prize  Dissertation  at  Oxford.  A  later  one,  Prof. 
A.  E.  Taylor's  Problem  of  Conduct,  raises  similar  questions. 

§  Cf.  Appearance  vs.  Reality,  ch.  xxv. 

11  Prof.  J.  S.  Mackenzie,  in  Mind,  Vol.  XVIII.  (N.S.),  p.  536. 


I 


286 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


287 


Here,  again,  Nichol,  in  whom  the  sceptical  spirit  was 
ever  active,  struck  home,  and  once  said  to  me,  "  Caird's 
greatest  limitation  is  that  he  has  a  gospel."*  Further, 
Morris  was  fated  to  introduce  an  entirely  new  way  of 
thinking  to  American  readers,  and  American  idealism 
has  remained  a  plant  even  more  tender  than  British. 
Everyone  has  heard  the  famous  witticism  of  William 
James,  about  "defining  the  Absolute  for  a  dollar"! 
Thus,  Morris  never  passed  beyond  the  missionary  stage, 
and  the  thinker— his  message  no  less— had  the  defects 
of  qualities,  if  withal,  the  qualities  of  defects.  By  way 
of  summary,  let  us  try  to  sense  these  aspects  of  his 
intellectual   situation. 

Morris  enjoyed  one  immense  advantage.  From  child- 
hood, he  was  nourished  on  questions  which  inevitably 
developed  an  interest  in  metaphysics.  At  first,  of 
course,  he  accepted  statements  of  profound  significance 
without  suspicion  of  their  scope  or  possibilities.  Even 
so,  they  amplified  his  outlook,  because  they  embodied 

"The  influence  which  draws  men's  thoughts  away  from  their 
personal  interests,  making  them  intensely  aware  of  other  exist- 
ences, to  which  it  binds  them  by  stroDg  ties  sometimes  of  admira- 
tion, sometimes  of  awe,  sometimes  of  duty,  sometimes  of  love."t 

It  thus  happened  that,  disturbed  by  conviction  of 
sin,  the  acute  form  of  human  frailty,  Morris  sought  the 
true  Reality  wherein  all  is  made  whole.  In  this  way, 
then,  he  acquired  an  enthusiasm  for  ideas,  in  the  shape 
of  ideals,  even  if  his  intensity  compelled  a  certain  nar- 
rowness. But  reading,  German  experience,  and  the 
conflict  with  scepticism,  corrected  his  early  rigorism, 
without   shifting   the   centre   of   his   absorption.    The 

*  Cf.  my  article  "Edward  Caxrd,''  Harvard  Theological  Review,  \o\. 
II.,  p.  135. 

t  Natural  Religion,  p.  236  (London,  1882). 


'spiritual  idealism*  of  the  final  period  softened  and 
enlarged  the  Calvinism  of  youth.  In  addition,  keen 
emotional  sensibilities,  finding  outlet  in  love  of  poetry 
and  delight  in  music,  tended  to  render  him  a  prophet 
more  than  a  cold,  critical  theorist.  Accordingly,  he 
took  his  place  among  that  "  band  of  veritable  apostles — 
men  who  were  burningly  convinced  of  the  essential 
truth  of"  the  doctrines  of  ideahsm,  "and  filled  with 
pity  or  contempt  for  all  who  could  continue  to  think 
along  the  traditional  English  lines,"  who  carried  Hegelian- 
ism  "over  into  the  English-speaking  world."  And, 
thanks  precisely  to  this  element  of  prophetic  fervour, 
"the  success  of  their  endeavors  was  most  rapid."* 
Indeed,  as  a  consequence  of  the  bias  given  by  early 
associations  and  training,  Morris  was  ever  something  of 
a  personalist,  as  if  an  idea  pecuhar  to  himself,  or  germane 
to  his  immediate  aspirations,  were  the  key  to  all  mysteries. 
Thus,  once  more,  he  had  his  advantage  at  a  price. 
He  hardly  saw  that  the  dangerous  foe  of  idealism  is, 
not  materialism,  but  dualism.  For,  disciplined  to 
account  Christianity  a  thing  apart,  it  was  more  than 
difficult  for  him  to  replace  this  tradition  with  a  concep- 
tion of  experience  dependent  upon  a  view  of  unity  that 
overthrew  every  artificial  barrier  between  the  sacred  and 
the  secular.  No  doubt,  he  came  to  realize  that  a  denial 
of  the  possibility  of  knowledge  of  the  infinite  struck  at 
the  foundations  alike  of  thought  and  morals.  Never- 
theless, he  scarcely  arrived  at  the  point  where  this 
unity  became  fatal  to  the  last  form  of  exclusiveness — 
the  separate  self.  Odd  reminiscences  of  the  *  relation 
between  faith  and  works,'  survivals  of  Puritan  modes, 

*  Of.  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Ethics,  Theodore  De  Laguna, 
pp.  344-5. 


\  , 


288 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


maintained  a  separation  between  self  and  the  Ultimate. 
Insistent  that  man's  universe  must  be  spiritual,  he  was 
less  mindful  that,  to  this  end,  it  must  also  be  intelligible 
throughout.     The  eighteenth  century  died  hard  in  him, 
so  that,  on  occasions,  he  spoke  as  if  the  Absolute  were 
the  antecedent  of  the  universe  rather  than  its  explana- 
tion.    In   short,   while  Puritanism  had  been  liberated 
from  its  cruder  constraints,  it  contrived  to  persist  under 
the    guise    of    a    certain    abstractness.     The    antithesis 
between  man  as  phenomenal  and  man  as  noumenal,  so 
plain  in  that  rigorist  thinker,  Kant,  appealed  to  the 
inherited  moralism  in  Morris,  and  with  such  force  that 
it  could  not  be  swept  away  utterly.     This  was  the  debt 
that  he  paid  to  his  time  and  opportunity.     Hence,  till 
the  end,  a  Protestant  attitude,  more  theological  than 
philosophical,  tempted  him,  not  to  evade,  but  to  miss, 
some   problems.     Unquestionably,    he   found    no    little 
support  here  from  the  letter  of  Hegel,  particularly  as  he 
found  it  in  the  Philosophy  of  Religion.     In  any  case,  he 
was  prevented  from  noting  that,  in  his  attempt  to  retain 
theological  statements,  Hegel  was  not  Hegelian  enough. 
More  than  likely,  this  limitation  must  be  charged,  not 
to  early  training  alone,  but  also  to  German  teaching, 
and  to  the  rebound  from  empiricism.     At  all  events, 
when  he  harks  back  to  a  spiritual  Absolute,   Morris 
finds  himself  able   to   rest   content   with   the   familiar 
phraseology    of    faith.     The    new    meaning,    which    he 
read  joyously  into  the  old  terms,  concealed  part  of  the 
problem,    just    because    former    implications    were    so 
definite  and  coercive. 

Finally,  Morris  was  a  pure  humanist  in  all  essential 
respects.  Moreover,  he  was  a  humanist  perforce;  and 
in  this  element  of  constraint  his  .qualities  and  defects 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


289 


alike  root.  Whatever  he  may  have  thought  about  the 
contribution  of  modern  science  to  the  well-being  and 
advancement  of  humanity,  his  vital  interest  lay  else- 
where. His  mind  found  food  for  reflection  in  religion, 
art,  morality,  social  phenomena,  and  the  history  of 
philosophy.  He  desired  principles,  and  proposed  to 
obtain  them  by  criticism  of  the  ideal  nature  of  man. 
Respecting  *  outer'  things,  his  constant  purpose  was  to 
penetrate  their  spiritual  ground  and  order.  And 
necessarily.  As  a  lad,  he  had  received  baptism  into 
that  internal  spirit,  which  no  external  forms  could 
embody  adequately, — the  permanent  touchstone  of 
Puritanism  in  the  English-speaking  world.  Accordingly, 
he  regarded  the  individual  *souU  as  something  set  apart, 
and  his  later  struggle  was  to  surmount  this  dualism,  in 
order  to  detect  spirit  everywhere.  His  inability  to 
appreciate  Spinoza  throws  light  upon  the  difficulties 
that  beset  him  as  he  took  his  new  way.  Thanks  to 
Puritan  sentiment,  he  might  almost  have  exclaimed, 
with  Rousseau,  "I  abhor  Spinoza!"  And  yet,  the 
evangelical  pietism  of  youth  did  incline  him  towards  a 
species  of  Platonizing  intelligence.  For,  *  conviction  of 
sin'  and  *  assurance  of  grace'  played  their  parts  in  a 
dialectic  movement  which,  in  turn,  demanded  reference 
to  a  principle  of  higher  unity.  Further,  the  'private 
judgment,'  so  typical  of  Congregational  'independency,' 
enabled  him  at  last  to  reach  this  unity  rationallv.  But 
he  arrived  at  his  philosophical  solution  thanks  to  a 
conviction  which  partook  strongly  in  the  nature  of 
faith.  Like  the  New  Englander, — bred  to  his  Bible, 
led  by  his  authoritative  ministry,  and  supported  by  his 
grave  folk, — he  found  'eventual  rest  atop  the  mount* 
through  a  consecrated  education,  and  was  therefore 
20 


i 


290 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


291 


able  to  conserve  the  habitude  of  the  old  doctrines  in 
the  free  movement  of  the  new  thought. 

His  cultural  experience  had  been  such  that  the  ideal- 
istic positions  of  the  final  period  were  no  vague  aspira- 
tions, but  convictions  that  welled  up  from  his  central 
being.     It   came   natural  to  him   to  insist   that   crass 
objects  are  not  empirically  'given/  nay,  are  themselves 
reasonable  only  upon  the  basis  of  an  idealistic  reference. 
Indeed,   if  sensible  things   be  independent   existences, 
all  science— a  rational  systematization— becomes  then 
and  thereby  impossible.    Hume  had  rendered  any  other 
view   an  anachronism   long   since.     Thus,  Morris  was 
able  to  escape  a  dualistic  theology  only  to  the  extent  to 
which  he  could  free  it  from  the  philosophical  blunders 
that  were  common  to  it  with  the  temper  of  the  entire 
Avfklarung.     Inevitably,  this  brought  him  into  violent 
conflict  with  the  popular  metaphysic  adopted  at  first, 
worse  luck,  by  the  votaries  of  modern  science.     Very 
naturally,  then,  he  reverted  to  a  humanistic  standpoint 
and,  as  naturally,  the  core  of  theological  teaching  could 
be  retained.     The  obvious  dependence  of  man  still  was 
'upon  Gk>d,'  not  upon  the  bhnd  forces  of  a  'foreign' 
Nature.    As  a  result,  the  formulw  of  the  creeds,  so  far 
from  repelling,  afforded  genial  terms  for  the  statement 
of  the  conclusions  of  modern  idealism.     Here  at  least, 
he  found  himself  liberated  beforehand  from  the  spatial, 
temporal  and  mechanical  modes  which  he  contemned  in 
empiricism.    Nay,  he  could  express  his  mature  convictions 
in  phrases  with  which  he  had  been  familiar  time  out 
of  mind. 

But,  although  he  never  knew  it,  he  had  a  price  to  pay. 
Reason  and  faith  agreed  in  the  way  quickly,— too  quickly 
for  a  full  survey  of  the  great  gulf  fixed  "  between  a  prin- 


ciple and   its   development  into   a   system."*    So   his 
expression  of  the  new  truth  in  the  old  language  lent  his 
philosophy  a  more  theological  cast  than  it  actually  bore. 
In  any  case,  however,  he  was  'coming  home'  here;  and 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  asserted  that,  so  long  as 
the  'spiritual  idealism'  was  grasped,  the  manner  of  its 
statement  mattered  little.     In  this  he  agreed  with  the 
British  leaders  of  the  school.     And,  unversed  in  technical 
theology,  he  interpreted  theological  terms  as  no  more 
than   a    system    of   doctrines    which    were    systematic 
because   intimating   the   presence   and   operation   of  a 
single  principle  common  to  all.     Let  words  be  what 
they  may,  the  vital  thing  for  philosophy  is  the  immanent 
principle;  for  religion,  the  life,  the  'new  heart.'    The 
former  is  conditioned  by  rigorous  thinking,  the  latter 
uncritical.     Hence    a    danger,    which    Morris    did    not 
escape  altogether.     General  propositions,   especially  if 
their  form  be  consecrated  by  ancient  usage,  interpose 
too  readily  between  real  problems  and  necessary  crit- 
icism.    Like  other  exponents  of  idealism  in  his  genera- 
tion, he  therefore  drew  a  cross-fire.    As  we  have  seen, 
the  orthodox  suspected  him— was  he  not  making  philo- 
sophy mistress  in  the  house  of  religion?     While  empiri- 
cists could  affirm,  as  one  of  them— his  colleague— re- 
marked to  me  but  yesterday,  "Morris  never  became  a 
scientific  man."     For  them,   his  method   of  approach 
to   their   questions   was   unintelligible  or   inapplicable, 
if  not  a  piece  of  mere  prejudice. 

At  the  last,  he  could  probably  have  countered  the 
former  with  success.  He  would  have  replied  that  they 
had  foregone  freedom  in  order  to  conserve  truth,  and 

*  Of.  Essays  in  Philosophical  Criticism,  edited  by  Seth  and  Haldane, 
p.  6. 


292 


\l 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


293 


that,  consequently,  their  truth  was  a  house  built  on 
the  sand.     And  he  would  have  proceeded  to  point  out 
that,  till  faith  saw  sound  reason  for  the  truth  that  was 
in  it,  there  could  be  no  sure  foundation.     It  is  not  so 
clear  that  he  could  have  countered  the  scientific  con- 
sciousness.    He  hardly  knew  it  with  the  requisite  intim- 
acy.    For,  as  we  have  also  seen,  his  own  faith  implied 
problems  that  had  not  been  dragged  into  the  light  of 
reason.     He  was  not  thorough  enough  with  the  sensible 
world,  and  therefore  did  not  realize  the  scope  of  the 
new   metaphysical  difficulties  raised  by  the  transform- 
ation of  science  after  1847.     Accordingly,  his  universal 
being  in  a  measure  a  particular,  he  unconsciously  divorced 
it  from  the  objects  of  science,  only  to  renew  its  univers- 
ality as  an  object  of  faith.      I  cannot  but  think  that 
the    teaching    of    Trendelenburg    exerted    mischievous 
influence  here.     And  Morris,  coming  to  the  real  Hegel 
late,  had  not  sufficient  contact  with  him  to  overcome 
Aristotelian — and    Puritan— dualism    completely.     His 
early  bias  had  been  exceptionally  coercive,  and  it  led 
him,  afterwards,  to  seize  the  whole  before  the  parts. 
To  some  extent,  then,  when  he  studied  Hegel,  he  took  the 
*  labour  of  the  notion '  for  granted.     Had  he  not  laboured 
already  in  blood  and  tears!    He  thus  missed  that  close 
grapple  with  the  sensuous  conditions  of  human  infirmitv, 
the  indispensable  prelude  to  persuasive  insight.     Sen- 
sitized as  he  had  been,  Hegel  so  overbore  him,  especially 
by  the  extreme  theological  form  of  the  Philosophy  of 
Religion,  that  he  hurried  through  the  "door  of  escape 
from  the  ordinary  and  fruitless  alternation  of  dogmatism 
with  scepticism''  which  "Hegel  opens." 

"The  living  process  by  which  a  mere  germ  of  knowledge 
becomes  transformed   into   a   fully  articulated  organism  .  .  . 


stands  aloof  from  reality  or  aspires  to  be  a  construction  in  vacuo 
in  Hegel's  system  less  than  in  any  other."* 

Untimely  dead,  Morris  enjoyed  no  opportunity  to 
return  full  circle  upon  this  fundamental  consideration. 

Nothwithstanding,  these  very  limitations  rendered 
his  intellectual  history  more  thoroughly  representative. 
It  is  abundantly  plain  that  nothing  was  so  powerful  in 
shaping  it  as  his  slow  progress  towards  emancipation 
from  the  theological  ideas  of  New  England.  Nay,  their 
influence  continued  to  determine  his  approach  to  philo- 
sophical problems  and  his  rating  of  their  respective 
importance  till  the  end.  So  much  so,  that  one  cannot 
do  better  than  transfer  to  his  case  what  has  been  so 
admirably  said  of  another  scholar,  similarly  nurtured, 
and  similarly  cut  down  ere  he  had  reaped  the  ripe  fruit 
of  his  labours.  The  biographers  of  Robertson  Smith 
record 

"That  he  refused  to  sacrifice  either  his  faith  or  his  reason; 
and  this  contradiction  will  disconcert  only  those  who  do  not 
perceive  that  it  is  the  ultimate  contradiction  in  human  life. 
All  intellectual  experience,  when  analyzed,  presents  the  same 
antinomy.  It  is  only  in  intellects  of  high  distinction,  such  as 
Smith's,  that  it  is  likely  to  attract  attention.  ...  It  is  only 
in  a  character  of  transparent  honesty  such  as  his  that  it  is  so 
clearly  and  ingenuously  apparent."! 

The  truth  is  that  Morris,  like  Smith,  spoke  to  his 
generation  out  of  a  travail  which  he  shared  with  it.J 

*  Cf.  Hegel  and  Hegelianism,  R.  Mackintosh,  pp.  227,  1. 

t  The  Life  of  William  Robertson  Smith,  John  Sutherland  Black  and 
George  Chrystal,  p.  572;  cf.  p.  571. 

t  As  the  matter  concerns  others  no  less  than  myself,  I  take  the  liberty 
to  adduce,  by  way  of  proof,  that  Smith's  deprivation  of  his  chair,  in 
1881,  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  under 
circumstances  which  meant  that  "the  accused  was  too  dangerous  a 
man  to  be  allowed  a  fair  trial,  and  the  only  exit  from  the  difficulty  was 


( 


i 


1 1 

I 


294 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


Otherworldliness  and  devotion  to  ideal  aims  he  had,  as 
of  right,  from  the  forebears.     Earnestness,  gravity  and 
seriousness  betokened  the  man  who  lived  ever  as  under 
the  eye  of  the  Great  Task  Master.     The  ethical  temper 
of  mind  that  set  him  towards  the  vocation  of  the  preacher 
at  the  first,  made  him  a  good  deal  of  a  preacher  till  the 
last.     But,  youthful  dogmatism,  growing  conscious  of 
itself,  fell  to  pieces.     Like  many  in  his  place  and  period, 
he  was  compelled  to  fare  far  from  the  old  roof-tree. 
Profounder  than  most,  and  with  an  experience  and  op- 
portunity  in   scholarship   almost   unique   then   in   the 
United  States,  the  quiet  independence  and  calm  serenity 
of  the  last  years  were  possessions  hard  won.     Forced 
to  transform  his  mental,  spiritual  and  social  world,  he 
achieved  a  reasonable  foothold  in  a  personalized  realm, 
where  he  could  rebuild  his  temple  better — but  it  was 
always  a  rebuilding  of  the  temple  that  he  sought.     Amid 
the  stress  of  doubt  and  the  pangs  of  change,  he  came  to 
see  that  the  God  of  New  England  was  a  'mortal  God.' 
But  he  found  no  rest  unto  his  soul  on  the  level  of  mort- 
ality.    In  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  he  must  needs  attempt 
to  think  through  to  the  point  where  personal  conviction 
could  be  persuaded  to  disclose  its  kinship  with  universal 
and  necessary  truth.     Thanks  in  large  measure  to  his 
character,  he  had  his  reward — in  Pisgah-Sights. 

^'Roughness  and  smoothness, 

Shine  and  defilement, 

Grace  and  uncouthness; 

One  reconcilement.  .  .  . 
to  use  force,"  that  is,  "  a  power  in  reserve  above  the  ordinary  constitution 
and  law"  (cf.  Black  and  Chrystal,  op.  ciL,  pp.  412,  435),  was  a  main 
factor  in  closing  the  career  of  the  Scottish  ministry  to  not  a  few  of  my 
contemporaries — so  much  did  Smith,  like  Morris,  represent  the  bitter 
struggle  of  an  entire  generation.  It  may  be  said,  for  American  readers, 
that  the  adjective  "Free"  had  nothing  to  do  with  theology,  but  every- 
thing with  politics! 


I 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS  295 

So  shall  I  fear  thee, 
Mightiness  yonder!  .  .  . 
So  shall  I  love  thee, 
Down  in  the  dark, — lest 
Glow^^orm  I  prove  thee, 
Star  that  now  sparkiest!" 

The  man  of  him  being  thus  ampler  than  his  books, 
saw  of  the  travail — he  had  souls  to  his  hire.  Chastened 
thinker,  pure  spirit,  circumspect  scholar,  sound  education 
flowed  from  contact  with  him.  His  personality  passed 
to  his  pupils  by  a  secret  process  of  transfusion  and, 
winning  upon  them  so  as  to  become  a  vital  agency, 
shortened  the  time  of  their  tribulation.  The  whole 
man  stood  out  forthright  in  the  spiritual  guide. 

A  very  ingenious  and  studious  promoter  of  real 
knowledge — the  epithet  is  Locke's — would  deem  iNIorris 
a  representative  of  "The  Genteel  Tradition  in  American 
Philosophy."*  I  disagree  with  this  thinking  gentleman 
— the  epithet  is  Locke's  once  more — misled  by  a  clever 
half-truth.  On  the  contrary,  Morris  was  the  incarn- 
ation of  a  temper  not  yet  naturalized  in  America,  one 
that  must  be  acquired  ere  we  can  stand  forth  stout 
witnesses  for  the  things  of  the  mind.  Noblesse  oblige 
blazoned  on  his  unsullied  escutcheon.  When,  thanks 
to  him  and  such  as  he,  we  realize  this  elemental  virtue, 
we  may  pass  to  that  higher  individualism,  the  privilege 
of  the  thinking  gentleman,  but  possible  only  when  the 
*  revolutionary'  loses  himself,  to  become  the  servant  of 
an  "ultimate  or  total  nature"  set  towards  a  "predeterm- 
ined goal."t  Then,  and  not  till  then,  "a  prodigious 
world"!  will  be  brought  to  potent  birth. 

*  Winds  of  Doctrine:  Studies  in  Contemporary  Opinion,  George  Sant- 
ayana,  pp.  186  f.;  cf.  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism, 
Woodbridge  Riley,  p.  238. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  208. 

X  Ibid.,  p.  213. 


CHAPTER  IX 
The  Man  and  the  Teacher 

When  I  turn,  in  conclusion,  to  attempt  a  portrait  of 
the  man  "in  his  habit  as  he  lived,"  I  must  depend  almost 
entirely  upon  those  who  knew  him  well.  Alas,  that 
the  ranks  of  his  file  should  be  so  thin  now! 

When  we  consider  significant  men  whose  personal 
relations  with  others  form  the  larger  part  of  their  activity, 
we  agree  forthwith  that  "the  most  pious  memories  of 
the  dead  are  not  so  much  of  what  they  did  as  of  what 
they  were."  This  applies  to  Morris  with  peculiar  force. 
For,  he  was  one  "the  mere  thought  of  whom  gave  en- 
couragement in  moments  of  perplexity,  of  failure,  and 
disappointment."  There  is  abundant  testimony  to  the 
overwhelming  sorrow  caused  by  his  death,  the  phrase, 
"a  very,  very  great  calamity,"  recurring  again  and 
again.*  Similar  unanimity  exists  to  the  effect  that  he 
left  "a  profound  impression"  alike  upon  associates  and 
pupils.  Accordingly,  it  is  not  enough  to  record  that 
he  was  "one  of  the  chief  philosophical  teachers  of 
America,"t  or  that  "he  had  gained  a  most  enviable 
name  and  influence  among  philosophical  students  and 
writers  and  teachers."!  Evidently,  he  possessed  dis- 
tinctive personality— the  endowment  that  counts  more 
than  aught  else  and,  in  philosophy,  controls.  Moreover, 
the  key  to  it  must  be  found  in  his  conviction  that  "  it 

♦  Cf.  The  Chronicle,  Vol.  XX.,  pp.  241  f.,  261  f.,  278  f.     The  Michigan 
Argonaut,  Vol.  VII.,  pp.  159  f.,  168  f. 

t  The  Ethics  of  Hegel,  J.  Macbride  Sterrett,  p.  30. 
X  Mind  (Old  Series),  Vol.  XIV.,  pp.  471-2. 

296 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


297 


is  possible  to  carry  back  the  world  of  experience  to  con- 
ditions that  are  spiritual."*  The  persuasiveness  of  the 
scholar  derived  its  power  from  the  ethical  warmth, 
apostolic  in  quality,  of  the  man.  It  was  not  for  nothing 
that  he  was  born  in  New  England. 

"What  mastery  his  that  worked  a  gentle  rule 
By  knowledge  nobly  lived!" 

Thus  his  colleague,  the  late  Professor  Williston  S. 
Hough,  senses  the  real  man  better,  thanks,  no  doubt, 
to  close  acquaintance. 

"At  times  he  spoke  almost  as  one  inspired  with  the  melodious 
rythm  of  a  poet  and  the  illumination  of  rare  philosophic  insight. 
Yet  the  chief  source  of  his  power  was  unquestionably  his  own 
character.  He  will  live  in  our  thought  as  a  remarkable  exemplif- 
ication of  sweetness  and  light.  His  loss  to  Philosophy  in  this 
country  is  great  and  twofold:  First,  as  a  teacher  who  would  have 
inspired  a  genuine  interest  in  Philosophy  in  every  student  who 
came  under  him,  and  who  would  have  educated  many  special 
and  useful  scholars  in  this  field;  and,  Second,  as  a  writer  who 
doubtless  had  his  greatest  work  still  before  him."t 

Hence  it  was  that,  when  he  died, 

"The  great  loss  to  the  University  and  to  the  world  of  philo- 
sophic thinkers  was  for  the  time  being  overshadowed  by  the  sense 
of  personal  bereavement  felt  by  every  one  who  had  in  the 
slightest  degree  known  him,  whom  to  know  was  to  greatly  love."t 

"His  soul  was  like  a  star  that  dwelt  apart." 

"In  his  character  there  was  a  rare  combination  of  childlike 
simplicity  and  almost  womanly  sensibility  with  manly  strength 
and  decision." 

"He  was  the  very  ideal  of  a  kindly,  scholarly  gentleman,  and 
the  men  were  very  few  who,  if  incapable  of  deriving  benefit  from 

*  Edward  Caird,  in  Mind  (Old  Series),  Vol.  VIII. ,  p.  560. 

t  Quoted  in  Sterrett,  I.  c,  p.  31. 

X  MS.  of  the  Memorial  of  the  Class  of  1861,  Dartmouth  College* 
by  Major  Edward  Dana  Redington;  read  by  him  at  the  Class  Reunion. 
Hanover,  N.  H.,  June,  1891. 


298 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


him  as  a  scholar,  could  not  profit  from  his  example  as  a  true  man." 

*' A  nobler  and  purer  character  it  has  not  been  my  lot  to  know." 

"His  life  has  been  a  gracious  gift  to  me." 

"I  prized  him  preeminently  because  all  the  influences  and 
instruction  that  came  from  him  arose  at  the  heart  of  his  per- 
sonahty." 

"A  sweet,  lovable,  kindly  man,  whose  pure  and  noble  enthus- 
iasm for  the  best,  machinery  and  routine  and  the  requisitions 
of  commonplace  men  could  not  corrode." 

Such  were  the  judgments  of  representative  colleagues 
and  pupils.  Invariably,  they  revert  to  the  man,  ranking 
him  altogether  beyond  the  pages  that  brought  him  to  a 
larger  public. 

''No  student  could  go  out  from  his  instruction  without  in- 
creased respect  for  the  noble  simplicity  of  his  intellectual  char- 
acter, without  clearer  notions  of  what  is  demanded  from  every 
honest  man  in  the  way  of  integrity  and  thorouglmess  in  his 
intellectual  convictions."* 

"While  we  have  gained  in  countless  ways  from  the  fullness  and 
breadth  of  the  know^ledge  of  Professor  Morris,  we  have  gained 
infinitely  more  from  the  man."t 

Written  under  the  smart  of  recent  loss,  it  was  inevit- 
able that  these  affectionate  tributes  should  be  coloured 
by  emotion.  It  is  w^ell,  therefore,  that  we  have  from 
Morris's  pen  a  deliberate  account — "a  new  version, 
almost  w^holly  rewTitten" — of  the  purpose  of  a  university 
and  of  the  ideal  w^hereby  a  teacher  should  be  animated-^ 
He  elaborates  his  owm  attitude  here,  and  lets  slip  the 
secret  of  the  persuasiveness  exerted  by  him  over  others, 
young  and  mature. 

"The  supreme  end  of  all  education  is  humane  culture — the 

Walter  in  The  Michigan  Argonaut, 


*  The  late  Professor  Edward  L 
Vol.  VII.,  p.  168. 


t  Students  in  the  M^'morial  of  the  Philosophical  Society,  Ibid.,  p.  168. 
X  University  of  Michigan  Philosophical  Papers.     First  Series,  No.  1. 
University  Education. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


299 


perfected  and  rounded  development,  in  each  of  its  subjects,  of 
essential  manhood, — and  the  like  is  supremely  true  of  that 
higher  and  highest  formal  education,  which  it  is  the  recognized 
function  of  Universities  to  provide  for  and  direct.  .  .  .  The 
true  University,  which  is,  by  hypothesis,  something  other  and 
more  than  a  high  school,  college,  or  technical  school,  has  in  the 
past  had  no  proper  existence  on  American  soil;  this  is  the  truth 
which  is  now  coming  to  be  currently  recognized  and  admitted. 
Along  with  this  has  come  the  consciousness  or  conviction  that 
the  times  are  ripe  for  something  higher  and  better  than  the  best 
that  our  educational  institutions  have  in  the  past  been  able  to 
offer;  that  the  nation  needs  it;  that  the  higher  practical  exigencies 
of  our  American  civilization  demand  it;  and  that  promising 
students  in  sufficient,  and,  indeed,  rapidly  growing  numbers, 
are  ready  to  seek  and  receive  it.  .  .  . 

"The  philosophical  faculty  alone  has  no  special  aim,  and 
represents  the  organism  of  the  University  .  .  .  the  idea  of  the 
freest  and  most  unrestricted  pursuit  and  promulgation  of  any 
and  all  truth  for  its  own  sake  alone.  .  .  .  Between  this  Uni- 
versity ideal  of  human  education  and  the  life,  work  and  organiz- 
ation of  our  American  institutions  for  higher  education  it  is  a 
mild  statement  to  say  that  there  has  been  in  the  past  a  decided 
lack  of  correspondence.  .  .  .  The  College  faculty  has  not  been 
a  "philosophical  faculty."  .  .  .  The  College  student  is  treated 
as  being  under  discipline;  and  the  College  instructor  is  a  dis- 
ciplinarian. To  the  former  daily  tasks  are  set,  of  which  it  is 
the  function  of  the  latter  to  exact  the  performance.  Neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  is  free;  the  student  is  not,  for  obvious 
reasons;  and  the  freedom  of  the  teacher  is  restricted,  for  the 
double  reason  that  his  work  must,  alwaj^s  and  necessarily,  be 
in  a  very  considerable  measure  mechanical  and  that,  in  pro- 
portion as  it  is  such,  more  of  it  can  be  and  is  required  of  him."  .  .  . 

Further,  "The  healthy  tendency  of  the  American  mind  toward 
the  definite  and  the  (supposed)  'concrete'  (in  opposition  to  the 
supposed  'barren  abstractions  of  philosophy'),  and  the  practical 
exigencies  of  our  growing  national  life,  have  been  the  united 
occasion  of  the  far  more  rapid  development  among  us  of  special, 
than  of  general  knowledge.  In  philosophy — which  is  .  .  .  the 
comprehension,  by  intelligence,  of  its  owti  nature  and  of  its 


300 


THE   LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


301 


universal  relations,  with  the  accompanying  power  to  give  to 
nature  her  universal  interpretation  and  to  define  for  human  life 
and  activity  their  supreme  ideals,  whether  in  society,  in  politics, 
in  the  world-life  of  humanity,  in  art,  or  in  rehgion — one  may  say, 
without  excessive  exaggeration,  that  scarcely  a  beginning  has 
been  made.  .  .  .  The  indispensableness  of  philosophic  culture, 
and  all  that  it  implies,  as  an  element  in  University  education, 
does  not  really  need  to  be  so  much  urged,  as  explained.  .  .  . 
The  American  mind  has  already  given  evidence  of  qualities 
that,  in  my  judgment,  peculiarly  endow  it  for  the  creative 
development,  as  well  as  the  responsive  reception,  of  philosophic 
truth.  .  .  .  Abundant  reason  why  this  should  be  so  is  found — 
apart  from  anything  that  may  be  peculiar  in  the  present  stage 
of  our  national  development — in  the  fact  that  the  American 
nation  is  a  child  of  ideas.  Religious  and  political  ideas,  and  ideals, 
cradled  our  nation  in  its  infancy,  and  have  been  the  spring  and 
strength  of  all  its  growing  life,  .  .  . — the  service  of  truth,  good- 
ness and  beauty;  and  truth,  goodness  and  beauty  are  to  man  the 
supreme  norm  of  his  conscious  and  voluntary  activity;  it  is  the 
highest  function  of  philosophy  to  comprehend  and  interpret" 
them.  .  .  .  ''The  unity  of  all  truth  is  the  fundamental  idea  of 
philosophy.  The  conception  of  the  University  is  a  specifically 
philosophical  one.  All  sciences  have  their  place  in  the  University 
because  they  really  bear  out  this  conception,  for  which  reason 
also  the  University  is  their  only  true  and  perfect  home.  And 
it  is  through  the  active,  virile  comprehension  and  exhibition  of 
all  sciences  in  this  their  relation  to  the  unity  of  all  truth  that 
not  only  true  mastery  of  them  is  demonstrated,  but  that  they 
acquire  their  true  educational  value.  .  .  .  The  complete  scient- 
ific identity  of  any,  the  least  fact  is  not  established  by  mere 
cognizance  of  the  fact,  but  by  the  comprehension  of  its  relations. 
Tota  in  minimis  existit  natura.  .  .  . 

"The  upshot  of  my  argument  is  that,  in  a  University,  every 
student  of  a  special  science  of  nature  should  become  conscious 
of  the  universal  science  of  nature.  ...  In  like  manner,  every 
student  of  particular  historic  events  should  be  trained  to  compre- 
hend the  universal  logic  of  events.  .  .  .  And  the  results  of  such 
union,  in  the  scientific  and  educating  work  of  the  University, 
of  the  one  and  the  many,  or  the  universal  and  the  particular, 


will  be — what?  First,  and  negatively,  the  avoidance  of  a  certain 
most  grievous  sham,  or  false  pretense,  which  consists  in  sending 
forth  from  the  highest  sanctuary  of  human  education,  with  the 
title  "Doctor,"  or  "Teacher,"  of  half-educated  persons  .  .  . 
the  narrow  one-sidedness  of  whose  training  reveals  itself  in  that 
illiberalism  which  *  consists  in  the  riding  of  hobbies.  .  .  .  Let 
the  hobbies  be  reserved  for  the  later  domestic  and  private  use 
of  those  who  have  first  learned  to  ride  in  the  saddle  of  universal, 
living  science.  .  .  .  Secondly,  and  positively,  the  result,  as  I 
predict,  will  be  the  realization  of  the  more  comprehensive  aim 
of  the  University,  which  is  the  development  in  its  members — 
along  with  symmetrical  and  cathoUc  culture — of  intellectual 
and  moral  self-mastery.  .  .  . 

"But  can  this  substantial,  ethical  result  be  anticipated,  under 
conditions  such  as  those  that  have  been  hereinbefore  described? 
Can  it  be  expected  without  more  specifically  ethical  and  rehgious 
study  and  training?  ...  I  do  indeed  hold,  not,  certainly,  as  a 
merely  personal  opinion,  but  as  one  of  the  highest  truths  of 
science,  that  the  intrinsic  condition  and,  rightly  understood, 
the  extrinsic  completion,  of  all  true  and  perfect  science  is  ethical 
and  religious.  By  ethical  knowledge  I  understand  the  broadest 
and  completest  and  deepest  human  self-knowledge,  and  by 
religious  knowledge  the  comprehension  of  that  saying,  in  which 
all  religion  and  philosophy  are  summarily  expressed,  'The 
Spirit  is  Truth.'  In  the  former  I  conceive  the  individual  as 
knowing  himself,  not  alone  in  his  personal  peculiarities  or  in  his 
individual  differences  from  all  other  men,  but  also,  and  much 
more,  in  his  organic  unity  \\dth  all  existence — with  nature,  with 
humanity,  and,  in  proportion  to  his  perfection,  with  God.  In 
the  latter  I  conceive  him  as  becoming  aware  of  his  supreme 
connection  {'religio')  with  God,  the  absolute  and  universal 
Spirit,  as  the  eternal  ground  of  his  owti  thought.  .  .  .  And  so, 
in  the  name  and  in  the  form  of  philosophic  science  I  would  have 
special  ethical  and  religious  knowledge  cultivated  in  the  Uni- 
versity for  every  reason,  for  the  sake  of  the  ideal  completion 
and  the  educating  power  of  all  other  sciences,  for  their  own  sake, 
and  for  the  sake  of  their  immediate  unity  with  the  highest  aim 
of  all  human  education.  And  so  will  the  University  become 
in  fact  a  'work-shop  of  the  Spirit  of  God.'" 


302 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


This  is  self-portraiture.     ^Morris  gave  himself  to  these 
ends,  little  understood  then,  and,  mightily  restrained 
by  the  New  England  balance  of  instincts  and  concep- 
tions,   of   sentiments    and    ratiocination,    he   preached 
them  with  a  selflessness  which  lent  them,  not  weight 
simply,  but  rather,  solid  reality.    As  we  have  seen,  the 
effect    was    immediate    and    profound.     But — how    to 
convey  it  today?     I  am  fortunate  in  the  material  before 
me,  and  am  able  to  furnish  an  admirable  medium,  first 
in  Mrs.  Harold  B.  Wilson,*  and  Dr.  Elmer  E.  Brownf  who 
after  the  lapse  of  twenty-five  years,  speak  for  the  benches; 
second,  in  Professor  John  Dewey  who,  just  after  the 
death  of  his  chief,  and  again,  at  an  interval  of  nearly 
twenty-seven  years,  speaks  as  one  master  may  of  another. 
Writing  in  June,  1914,  Mrs.  Wilson  says: 
"Mrs.  Morris  has  asked  me  to  send  you  my  impres- 
sions of  Dr.  Morris  as  teacher,  from  a  student's  point 
of  view.     It  is  a  difficult  thing  to  do  clearly  or  to  advant- 
age, because,  I  suppose,  there  never  was  a  teacher  who 
so  completely  set  aside  his  personality  in  dealing  with 
students,  and  laid  the  whole  emphasis  upon  the  subject. 
His  manner  was  always  cool,  undemonstrative,  and  absol- 
utely impersonal,  so  that  even   in  a  University  where 
one  heard  a  good  deal  of  crude  and  opinionated  talk 
about  'co-eds,'  the  scholarly  atmosphere  of  the  lecture- 
room  was  never  disturbed  by  any  self-consciousness  on 
the  part  of  the  women.     We  were  there  simply  to  hear 
and  to  understand  the  truth  as  far  as  we  were  able; 
and  even  in  the  small  gatherings  that  sometimes  assem- 
bled in  his  library  for  special  discussions,  there  was 

*  Alice  A.  Graves,  a  signatory  of  the  Philosophical  Society  Memorial, 
as  above. 

t  Formerly  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  now  Chan- 
cellor of  New  York  University. 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


303 


never  any  visible  change  of  attitude  toward  us.    This 
was  part  of  that  unusual  serenity  and  '  deliberate  escape 
from  the  trouble  at  the  heart  of  things  '  that  was  so  char- 
acteristic   of    him.     We    always    found    him    tolerant, 
respectful  of  our  most  inane  ideas  and  questions,  and 
absolutely    unexcitable.    The    happy    effect    of    this 
bearing  was,   that  while   acquiring  a  respect  for  the 
attainment  of  truth,  we  also  acquired  a  pleasing  respect 
for  ourselves— a  very  helpful  part  of  our  mental  develop- 
ment.    If  this  attitude  of  modesty  on  Dr.  Morris's  part 
had  been  a  pose,  it  would  have  fallen  through  at  once; 
for,  the  student  keeps  enough  of  the  irreverent  boy  in 
him  to  call  down  the  poseur.     He  cannot  be  impressed 
by  any  sort  of  make-believe.     The  genuineness  of  this 
modesty  was  shown  in  Dr.  Morris's  attitude  toward 
himself.     He  showed  no  disposition  to  exploit  himself, 
as  he  might  easily  have  done,  for  he  had  acquired  a 
great  influence  among  the  students,  one  that  did  not 
end  with  his  class-room.     The  certain  test  of  the  funda- 
mental nature  of  the  effect  of  his  teaching  on  his  pupils, 
was  the  difference  it  made  in  their  work  all  through  the 
University.     It  might  not  have  been  easy  to  say  just 
when  and  how,  in  the  course  of  his  lectures  on  'Real 
Logic,'  for  instance,  the  conduct  of  life  was  definitely 
pointed  out;  but  I  do  know  that  listening  to  them  led 
even  the  most  indifferent  student  to  confess  that  he 
found  it  less  easy  to  use  his  cuffs  for  a  reference  library 
at  examination  time — so  great  is  the  value  of  contact 
only  with  great  thoughts  about  life;  it  may  lead  to  better 
thoughts  about  living. 

"Many  teachers  get  wonderful  results  through  a 
strong  appeal  to  the  individual,  with  a  quick  insight 
into  the  needs  of  each.     Dr.  Morris  never  made  any 


304 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


appeal  to  this  innocent  vanity,  and  no  one  could  be  less 
concerned  than  he  to  *  advertise'  himself  in  any  way — 
even  by  the  most  refined  and  indirect  methods.  One 
did  not  feel  that  this  was  because  he  belittled  himself 
or  his  office,  but  rather  because  of  a  certain  austere 
dignity  of  character,  as  well  as  a  lack  of  self-consciousness. 

"As  nearly  as  I  could  judge,  before  the  time  of  Dr. 
Morris  and  his  able  assistant.  Dr.  Dewey,  the  Depart- 
ment of  Philosophy  occupied  a  vague  and  dusty  corner, 
set  apart  for  those  isolated  metaphysical  discussions 
that  seem  out  of  relation  to  everything.  But  it  gradually 
began  to  dawn  upon  us  as  we  listened  to  his  lectures 
that  what  we  called  philosophy  was  really  an  explanation 
of  life  itself  in  all  its  relations  and  import.  It  was  a 
recognition  of  the  'spiritual  yearning'  that  comes  even 
to  the  least  thoughtful  that  underlay  all  of  Dr.  Morris's 
teaching.  His  lectures  were  not  simply  to  tell  us  what 
Kant  and  Hegel  taught,  and  what  were  the  missing  links 
in  Berkeley  and  Hume,  but  to  give  us  sane  conceptions 
of  thinking  and  acting.  Study  of  philosophy  was  no 
longer  to  be  viewed  as  a  somewhat  jocular  intellectual 
game — shooting  at  an  imaginary  target  without  a  bull's- 
eye. 

*'  I  do  not  think  that  Dr.  Morris  cared  to  be  merely  a 
teacher  of  philosophical  systems,  but  that,  along  with 
this,  he  hoped  to  begin  the  education  of  the  higher 
understanding,  so  that,  if  we  ever  found  ourselves 
entering  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  we  would  have  ac- 
quired at  least  an  'attitude  of  knowledge'  toward  that 
holy  of  holies.  It  might  seem  difficult  to  understand 
how  his  influence  as  a  teacher  should  have  been  so 
largely  ethical,  since  I  never  knew  him  to  talk  to  us 
directly  on  the  subject  of  conduct.     But  his  personality. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


305 


though  quiet,  was  large,  and  he  was  a  man  of  such 
exquisite  refinement  in  voice,  manner  and  thought,  that 
one  unconsciously  fell  into  the  habit  of  adjusting  one's 
self  to  it,  and  of  trying  to  meet  it  on  its  own  high  level. 
It  was  easier  to  hear  and  heed  the  'Thus  saith  the  Lord,' 
which  is  for  many  of  us  a  vexatiously  constraining 
admonition. 

"  It  would  be,  of  course,  impossible  for  me  to  say  any- 
thing in  regard  to  his  place  in  the  development  of  philo- 
sophical thought.     But,  in  a  general  way,  I  think  the 
impression  he  gave  his  students  was  that  the  intellectual 
world  was  a  place  whose  accepted  traditions  he  did  not 
wish  to  minimize.     He  grasped  the  past  with  one  hand, 
and  gave  a  generous  welcome  to  the  future  with  the  other. 
He  liked  those  changes  in  philosophical  thought  which 
took  place  by  a  process  of  development  and  inclusion. 
The  old  things  did  not  make  him  angry,  and  the  new 
things  did  not  unsettle  his  mind.     So  he  was  well  fitted 
for  just  the  office  of  forming  a  link  between  the  outgrown 
and  the  advancing  systems  of  thought.     What  radicalism 
he  had  was  not  of  a  destructive  sort.     This  would  have 
been  repulsive  to  him.     He  disliked  rashness  and  violence 
in  thought  as  a  sort  of  spiritual  bad  manners.     To 
destroy  everything  in  the  past,  and  then  complain  that 
there  was  nothing  left  but  fragments,  was  not  his  method; 
but    rather    that    the    process,    necessarily    uncertain, 
known  as  'advanced  thinking,'  should  include  a  recog- 
nition of  whatever  truth  the  past  had  achieved. 

"Even  after  twenty-five  years,  it  is  not  possible  to 
speak  of  Dr.  Morris,  and  all  his  teaching  did  for  me, 
without  being  deeply  moved.  The  intimate,  heart- 
stirring  appeal  that  he  made,  in  his  quiet,  self-effacing 
way,  to  all  classes  of  students,  was  shown  at  the  time 
21 


306 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


of  his  death.  No  one  would  have  been  more  surprised 
than  he  at  the  impressive,  solemnizing  outburst;  for 
he  was  a  beloved  element  in  University  life,  even  to 
those  who  had  never  studied  with  him;  and,  for  those 
who  w^ere  his  disciples,  it  was  a  period  of  great  sorrow. 
"He  was  not  a  handsome  man  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  term;  yet  often,  during  lecture,  I  have  thought 
his  face  the  most  beautiful  I  have  ever  seen — as  though 
a  light  were  shining  through  some  delicate,  half-trans- 
parent mask.  I  never  knew  him  to  have  any  personal 
intimacies  with  students,  though  no  one  could  be  more 
ready  at  any  time,  opportune  or  not,  to  let  his  own  work 
fall,  and  give  all  help  in  his  power.  His  reticence 
never  meant  unfriendliness. 

"Those  who  could  judge  of  his  work  widely  and 
without  prejudice  felt  that  they  could  never  regret 
enough  that  he  passed  on  to  the  Land  of  Silence  just 
as  he  was  beginning  to  come  into  his  own,  after  so  many 
years  of  patient  effort." 

Chancellor  Brown,  writing  under  date  February, 
1916,  records: 

"When  I  went  to  the  University  of  Michigan,  after 
some  experience  in  teaching,  and  older  by  some  years 
than  the  average  freshman,  it  was  with  a  well-defined 
intellectual  hunger  in  several  directions.  One  of  these 
was  in  the  direction  of  aesthetic  appreciation.  Another, 
much  more  vague,  was  a  desire  to  understand  how  philo- 
sophy deals  with  the  problems  of  life.  I  had  known 
nothing  of  Professor  Morris,  but  was  quickly  attracted 
by  his  courses  in  the  history  of  philosophy  and  in  aes- 
thetics. As  I  remember  it  now,  I  made  my  way  into 
his  classes  with  my  first  semester  in  college,  and  took  as 
much  work  with  him  as  circumstances  and  regulations 
permitted. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


307 


"The  fineness  and  elevation  of  his  personal  character 
appealed  to  me  strongly  from  the  start,— the  quiet 
manner,  the  deliberate  and  temperate  expression,  the 
unmistakable  devotion  to  his  subject,  even  enthusiasm 
for  it,  which  never  flamed  out  in  any  violence  of  expres- 
sion, but  was  rather  a  deep  and  pervasive  glow.  I  was 
not  at  first  aware  of  this  warmth.  I  thought  rather  of  a 
philosophical  detachment  and  even  indifference.  But 
it  was  not  long  before  I  felt  the  personal  conviction  of 
the  teacher  and  his  intense  loyalty  to  the  doctrines 
w^hich  he  set  forth. 

"It  was  Professor  Morris  who  gave  me  my  first 
introduction  to  the  philosophy  of  Hegel.  I  had  known 
of  Hegel,  but  hardly  more  than  as  a  name  in  the  history 
of  human  thought.  It  was  not  until  later  that  I  came 
to  know  of  the  controversies  which  had  raged  about 
the  Hegelian  doctrine,  and  of  the  historic  rise  and  decline 
of  Hegelianism  in  the  thought  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Professor  Morris  referred  to  Hegel's  teaching  as  coming 
like  a  fresh  wind  from  the  mountains  into  the  philo- 
sophical discussions  of  his  age.  I  believe  the  doctrine, 
which  was  already  anathema  in  a  large  part  of  the 
philosophical  world,  was  to  Professor  Morris  fresh  and 
vital  and  inspiring,  as  it  had  been  to  many  others  before 
the  time  of  which  I  am  speaking.  It  was  not  until 
after  I  had  left  college  that  I  read  with  care  the  fine 
summary  of  Hegel's  logic  which  Professor  Morris  pub- 
lished in  the  Griggs'  philosophical  series.  I  grieved  then 
that  his  death  in  the  middle  of  my  college  course  had 
prevented  me  from  taking  the  course  in  this  subject 
which  he  offered  in  the  University  under  the  title  of 
Real  Logic,  following  his  course  in  Formal  Logic.  How- 
ever far  I  may  have  w^andered  into  the  speculations  of  a 


308 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


more  recent  philosophy,  I  can  see  that  my  thinking  ever 
since  my  college  days  has  been  influenced  by  that  majest- 
ic system  of  thought  which  we  glimpsed  in  Professor 
Morris's  teaching. 

"The  news  of  his  death  shocked  and  saddened  the 

whole  University.     The  great  body  of  students,   who 

had  never  come  in  personal  contact  with  him,  knew  that 

one  of  the  great  teachers  of  the  institution  was  gone. 

And  those  of  us  who  were  studying  under  his  direction 

felt  that  we  had  suffered  a  personal  and  irreparable  loss." 

Writing,  in  the  spring  of  1889,  Professor  Dewey  says:* 

"It  was  a  life  great,  not  in  outward  circumstance, 

but  in  spirit,  and  in  the  quality  of  its  achievement.  .  .  . 

We  cannot  cease  to  regret  that  the  entire  unconsciousness 

of  Professor  Morris  that  his  own  experiences  could  be 

of  interest  to  others  should  have  deprived  us  of  any 

more  adequate  record  of  his  intellectual  development, 

especially   in  the   growth   of  his   philosophic  thought. 

In  the  opening  of  his  lectures   upon  British    Thought 

and  Thinkers^  there  is  an  allusion  to  himself,  which  is 

worth  quoting,  both  because  of  its  rarity  and  because 

it  reveals  how  early  his  mind  sought  the  philosophic 

channel. 


<<  < 


'I  can  remember,'  he  says,  'how  as  a  mere  boy,  more  than 
once,  in  an  evening  reverie,  an  experience  somewhat  in  this  vein 
came  to  me.  All  my  boyish  ideas  of  things  seemed,  as  pure 
creations  of  my  own  fancy,  to  melt  away,  and  there  remained, 
as  the  whole  sum  and  substance  of  the  universe,  only  the  empty 
and  inexplicable  necessity  of  being,  plus  a  dull,  confused  and 
indescribable  sensation  as  of  a  chaos  of  shapeless  elements- 
Then  came  the  return  to  the  world  such  as  it  had  actually  shaped 
itself  in  my  imagination— the  earth,  with  its  green  fields  and 

*  The  Palladium;   An  Annual  Edited  by  College  Fraternities  at  the 
University  of  Michigan,  Vol.  XXXI.,  pp.  110  f. 
t  Pp.  7-8. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


309 


forest-covered  mountains,  the  world-inhabited  heavens,  the 
changing  seasons,  man  and  his  past  history  and  unrevealed 
earthly  destiny,  not  to  mention  the  myriad  little  and  familiar 
things  which  would  necessarily  crowd  the  foreground  of  such  a 
picture  in  a  boy's  mind.  The  view  which  a  moment  before  had 
demonstrated  so  signally  its  capacity  of  dissolving  again  became 
a  slowly  changing  panorama  of  a  world.  It  was  into  such  a 
conception  of  a  world  that  I,  following  unwillingly  a  bent  com- 
mon to  the  universal  mind  of  man,  was  more  or  less  blindly 
seeking  to  introduce  order  and  permanence.  What  must  be? 
Why  must  anything  be?  Why  must  all  things  be?  I  need  not 
say  that  the  immediate  result  of  my  reflections  was  tolerably 
negative.' " 

"We  cannot  but  wish  as  we  read  this  that  we  had 
more  autobiographical  fragments  to  draw  upon. 

"  The  instruction  Professor  Morris  received  in  college 
does  not  appear  to  have  appealed  to  him  particularly. 
Indeed,  it  seems  rather  to  have  impelled  him,  with  a 
dislike  which  never  left  him,  from  what  is  often  miscalled 
metaphysics,  the  partly  verbal,  partly  arbitrary  treatment 
of  various  recondite  notions.  At  one  period,  he  was  a 
disciple  of  the  English  Empirical  School,  of  the  Mills, 
and  of  Bain  and  Spencer.  He  went  so  far  as  to  consider 
himself  a  materialist.  In  later  years,  it  was  something 
more  than  a  logical  conviction  of  the  purely  theoretical 
shortcoming  of  these  forms  of  philosophy  that  made 
him  so  strong,  though  so  fair  and  appreciative,  an  oppon- 
ent of  them.  It  was  also,  if  we  may  make  use  of  some 
remarks  of  his  upon  one  occasion  when  materialism  was 
under  discussion,  the  conviction,  which  personal  ex- 
perience had  brought  home  to  him,  of  their  ethical 
deficiencies,  and  of  their  failure  to  support  and  inspire 
life.  ...  He  never  surrendered  the  belief  that  genuine 
personal  philosophic  conviction  must  be  based  upon  a 
knowledge  of  philosophy  in  its  historic  development. 


310 


THE   LIFE   AND   WORK   OF 


This  belief  was  the  basis  of  his  opinion  that  what  Amer- 
ican thought  needed  above  all  else  as  a  condition  of  getting 
out  of  its  somewhat  provincial  state,  was  an  adequate 
acquaintance  with  the  great  thought  of  the  past.     While 
he  held  a  definite  philosophical  position  of  his  own, 
and  held  it  firmly,  his  instruction  was  based  upon  the 
idea  that  the  main  thing  after  all  is  to  get  the  individual 
out  of  his  restricted  ways  of  thinking  and  in  contact 
with  the  stream  of  reflective  thought  that  has  been 
flowing  on  well  nigh  twenty-five  hundred  years.     For 
a  time  his  own  philosophic  conviction  was  probably  an 
Aristotelianism  modified  and  developed  by  the  results 
of  modern  science.  .  .  .  Although  Trendelenburg  had 
incorporated  within  his  own  teaching  the  substantial 
achievements    of    that    great    philosophical    movement 
which  began  with  Kant  and  closed  with  Hegel,  ...  he 
had  taken  a  hostile  attitude  to  these  positions  as  stated 
by  Hegel,  and  to  the  method  by  which  they  were  taught. 
While  Professor  Morris  was  never  simply  an  adherent 
of  Trendelenburg,   he  probably  followed   him  also   in 
this  respect.     At  least,  he  used  sometimes  in  later  3'ears 
to  point  out -pages  in  his  copy  of  Hegel  which  were 
marked /nonsense,'  etc.,  remarks  made  while  he  was  a 
student  in  Germany.      It  was  thus  not  any  discipleship 
which  finally  led  Mr.  Morris  to  find  in  Hegel  (in  his  own 
words)  'the  most  profound  and  comprehensive  of  modern 
thinkers.'     He  found  in  him  a  better  and  fuller  state- 
ment of  what  he  had  already  accepted  as  true,  a  more 
ample  and  far-reaching  method,  a  goal  of  his  studies  in 
the  history  of  thought.  ... 

"Since  Professor  Morris  never  held  his  philosophy  by 
a  merely  intellectual  grasp,  since  it  was  fused  with  his 
personal  character,  and  gained  its  colour  and  tone  from 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


311 


his  own  deeper  interests,  it  seems  worth  while  to  speak 
of  his  thought  in  relation  to  his  other  characteristic 
qualities,— his  love  of  beauty  and  his  strong  religious 
nature. 

"All  who  knew  him  knew  how  genuine  and  deep  was 
his  appreciation  of  the  beautiful,  especially  as  manifested 
in  poetry  and  music.  In  music,  indeed,  he  had  not 
only  a  theoretical  appreciation,  but  a  practical  and 
loving  knowledge.  This  love  of  the  beautiful  found  an 
abiding  home  in  the  very  heart  of  his  philosophy.  It 
gave  to  his  thought  a  peculiarly  elevated  tone.  It 
brought  him  into  congenial  sympathy  with  some  of 
the  greatest  spirits  of  the  race,  notably  Plato.*  While 
he  did  not  draw  his  essential  intellectual  nutriment  from 
Plato,  he  did  derive  from  him  in  large  measure  intel- 
lectual inspiration.  He  never  spoke  of  Plato  without  a 
kindling  enthusiasm,  a  warmth  of  sympathy  which  no 
other  philosopher  ever  aroused  in  quite  the  same  degree. 
....  It  was  the  beauty  of  the  spirit,  the  beauty  of 
the  eternal  idea  manifesting  itself  in  outward  form  that 
drew  Mr.  Morris.  The  delight  in  this  factor  made 
his  idealism  poetic  as  well  as  philosophic.  .  .  . 

"'The  very  sense  of  philosophical  idealism,'  he  says 
in  one  of  his  works,  'is  to  put  and  represent  man  in  direct 
relation  with  the  Absolute  Mind  so  that  its  light  is  his 
strength  and  its  strength  is  made  his.'  The  firmness 
with  which  he  held  this  truth  is  the  key  to  all  of  his 
thinking.  It  is  also  the  key  to  his  attitude  towards 
current  religious  beliefs.  In  the  ordinary  antithesis 
between  the  supernatural  and  the  natural,  he  saw  con- 
cealed the  deeper  truth  of  the  antithesis  of  the  spiritual 

*  Cf.  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism,  Woodbridge 
Riley,  pp.  155  f.,  169. 


> 


312 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


and  the  natural— an  antithesis  involving,   however,  a 
unity;  the  natural  being  only  the  partial  and  dependent 
manifestation  of  the  spiritual;  of  such  a  position  he 
found   all  history  to  be   the  demonstration.  ...  But 
we  do  him  wrong  to  speak  of  his  religious  faith  and  his 
philosophic  knowledge  as   if  they  were  two  separate 
things    capable    of   reacting    upon    each    other.     They 
were  one— vitally  and  indistinguishably  one.      In  this 
union  his  intellectual  and  moral  nature  had  its  roots— a 
union  which  made  him  so  complete  a  man  and  his  life 
so  integral.     He  was  preeminently  a  man  in  whom  those 
internal  divisions,  which  eat  into  the  heart  of  so  much 
contemporary  spiritual  life,  which  rob  the  intellect  of  its 
faith  in  truth  and  the  will  of  its  belief  in  the  value  of 
life,    had    been   overcome.     In   the   philosophical   and 
religious  conviction  of  the  unity  of  man's  spirit  with 
the  divine,   he  had  that  rest  which  is  energy.     This 
wholeness  of  intelligence  and  will  was  the  source  of  the 
power,   the  inspiring  power,   of  his  life.     It  was   the 
source  of   the  definiteness  and  the  positiveness  of  his 
teaching,  which,  free  from  all  personal  dogmatism,  yet 
made  the  pupil  instinctively  realize  that  there  was  some- 
thing real  called  truth,  and  this  truth  was  not  only  capable 
of  being  known  by  man,  but  was  the  very  life  of  man. 

'*No  attempt  can  here  be  made  to  appreciate  the 
intimate  and  personal  qualities  of  Mr.  Morris.  Were 
I  to  attempt  it,  the  flood  of  personal  memories  and 
affections  would  prevent.  To  those  who  did  not  know 
him,  no  use  of  adjectives  would  convey  an  idea  of  the 
beauty,  the  sweetness,  the  wholeness  of  his  character. 
To  those  who  did  know  him,  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak 
of  these  things.  His  gentle  courtesy  in  which  respect 
for  others  and  for  himself  were  so  exquisitely  blended, 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


313 


his  delicate  chivalry  of  thought  and  feeling;  his  union  of 
intellectual  freedom  and  personal  simplicity— who  shall 
speak  adequately  of  these  traits?  The  words  of  one 
who  knew  Mr.  Morris  only  by  his  outward  presence, 
and  through  the  report  of  others,  come  to  my  ips: 
'There  was  nothing  which  he  held  as  his  own;  he  had 
made  the  great  renunciation.'" 

Again,  looking  now  down  the  long  vista  of  years, 
Professor  Dewey,  writing  in  December,  1915,  gives  the 
following  estimate  of  his  teacher  and  associate: 

"  My  chief  impression  of  Professor  Morris  as  a  teacher, 

vivid  after  the  lapse  of  years,  is  one  of  intellectual  ardour, 

of  an  ardour  for  ideas  which  amounted  to  spiritual  fervour. 

His  very  manner  as  he  lectured  on  a  theme  dear  to  him 

was  like  an  exemplification  of  his  own  attachment  to 

the  Aristotelian  doctrine,  that  the  soul  is  the  form,  the 

entelechy,  of  the  body.    His  spare  and  tense  frame  seemed 

but  an  organ  for  the  realization  of  thought.     The  image 

as  it  stands  forth  in  my  mind  today  is  accentuated  by 

the  fact  that  his  energy  w^as  never  vehemence.     His 

emphasis  always  seemed  moral  rather  than  physical. 

He  had  vigour;  his  manner  was  never  indolent;  he  threw 

himself  with   positiveness  into   his  message.     But  his 

physique,  though  firm  knit,  was  not  of  itself  sufficiently 

vigorous,  so  it  seemed,  to  account  for  the  verve  of  his 

teaching.    As  his  eye  lit  up  and  his  face  shone,  there 

was   fire    without    heat,    energy   without   violence— an 

exhibition  of  the  life  of  thought. 

"  I  would  not  give  the  impression  that  he  was  a  preacher 
of  a  message  rather  than  a  scholar.  After  the  lapse  of 
years  it  is  doubtless  his  more  exalted  moments  that 
form  the  material  of  my  mental  picture;  it  is  they  which 
are  typical  of  his  personality  and  his  influence.     But 


314 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


he  was  essentially  the  scholar  in  his  instruction.     Upon 
rare  occasions  I  saw  him  stirred  by  indignation— always 
by  some  manifestation  of  what  seemed  to  him  insincerity, 
or  of  some  display  which  was  the  equivalent  of  insin- 
cerity.   One  of  these  occasions  was  w^hen  a  graduate 
student,  whose  main  interest  was  in  some  other  branch 
of  learning,  said  that  he  intended  to  come  to  Professor 
Morris's  classes  as  he  wished  to  dabble  in  philosophy. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  the  luckless  student  was  merely 
unfortunate  in  his  choice  of  a  term.     But  to  Professor 
Morris  the  word  'dabble'  as  applied  to  study  of  philo- 
sophy seemed  to  sum  up  all  that  was  reprehensible  in  a 
student.     In  part  his  resentment  was  because  philosophy, 
a  love  of  wisdom  that  to  him  was  truly  a  Platonic  love, 
was  impugned.      But  in  good  measure  his  indignation 
was  called  forth  by  the  intimation  of  any  connection 
between  scholarly  study  and  dabbling,  no  matter  what 
the  topic. 

"There  are  teachers  who  inspire,  but  their  inspiration, 
tested  by  time,  appears  mainly  emotional,  and  hence 
temporary,  transient.  There  are  scholars  who  are 
thorough  and- honest,  but  whose  attitude  toward  their 
subject  seems,  if  not  perfunctory  and  formal,  at  least 
professional,  a  tradesmanlike  affair.  Mr.  Morris  was 
of  that  rarer  group  where  scholarship  blends  with  en- 
thusiasm; where  competent  technical  methods  lend 
themselves  to  the  support  of  inspiration.  I  cannot 
imagine  either  the  student  indifferent  to  philosophy 
or  the  student  whose  main  concern  with  it  was  pro- 
fessional leaving  Professor  Morris's  classes  without 
having  gained  a  respect  for  the  disinterested  play  of 
mind,— for  scholarship  not  as  a  badge  of  possession  or 
external  accomplishment,  but  as  a  vital  concern. 


f 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


315 


"As  I  go  over  more  in  detail  the  courses  which  I 
followed   with   him   in   the   history   of  philosophy    (at 
Johns    Hopkins    University),    I    recall    long    stretches 
devoted  mainly  to  exact,  orderly  and  lucid  exposition. 
It  was  doubtless  Aristotle  and  Hegel  who  called  forth 
these  exhibitions  of  noble  ardour  which  remain  so  promin- 
ent in  my  memory.     After  I  became  personally  more 
familiar  with  the  writings  of  the  men  about  whom  he 
lectured,  I  was   struck,  upon  recurring   to  my  notes, 
to  find  how  largely  he  conveyed  each  author  in  words 
chosen  from  the  author  himself;  with  what  scholarly 
tact  he  seized  upon  characteristic  words,  and  with  what 
a  sense  for  the  logic  of  the  author  he  strung  them  to- 
gether.    His    exposition    was    conscientiously    severed 
from  his   criticism,  which  followed  hard   upon  it.     In~7 
dealing  with  the  British  writers  his  criticism  was  severe 
and  unfavourable— as  one  can  gather  from  his  British 
Thought  and  Thinkers,  a  book  more  popular  in  tone, 
thanks  to  its  origin,  than  his  academic  lectures,  but  yet 
agreeing  in  a  constant  depreciation  of  English  thought 
when  compared  with  German.     I  cannot  but  feel  that  a 
genuinely  typical  significance  attaches  to  his  judgment 
of  John  Stuart  Mill.     The  personality  and  the  intention 
of  Mill  had  a  great  attraction  for  Morris;  I  like  to  think 
it  was  because  of  a  real  kinship  between  the  characters 
of  the  two  men.     But  Mill's  standpoint  and  achieve- 
ment in  philosophy,  judged  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
idealism  so  dear  to  Morris,   repelled  him.     I  have  a 
feeling  that  his  lectures  betrayed  the  fact  that  he  never 
quite    forgave   the   English    empiricists,    'externalists,' 
and  mechanical  philosophers  for  having,  for  a  time,  led 
him  astray.     The  tone  of  his  judgments  seems  coloured 
by  his  own  conversion  from  allegiance  to  English  philo- 


316 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


317 


sophy.  However  that  may  be,  I  cannot  refrain  from 
quoting  the  words  to  which  I  have  referred  as  genuinely 
typical;  'I  conclude  that  J.  S.  Mill's  greatest  personal 
misfortune  was  that  he  was  born  the  son  of  James  Mill, 
and  not  of  Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte/  The  spiritual  kin- 
ship which  I  am  confident  Morris  felt  between  Mill's 
intention  and  his  own  thought,  an  intention  frustrate 
in  Mill,  he  found  achieved  in  the  ethical  idealism  of 
Fichte. 

"  It  is  not  for  me  to  expound  the  idealism  which  w^on 
the  ardent  loyalty  of  Morris.  But  I  may  comment  upon 
it  from  the  standpoint  of  the  impressions  left  upon  a 
student.  It  was,  all  the  way  through,  an  objective  and 
ethical  idealism.  He  effected  in  himself  what  many  1 
book-scholars  would  doubtless  regard  as  impossible,— a 
union  of  Aristotle,  Fichte  and  Hegel.  The  world,  the 
world  truly  seen,  was  itself  ideal;  and  it  was  upon  the 
ideal  character  of  the  world,  as  supporting  and  realizing 
itself  in  the  energy  of  intelligence  as  the  dominant  ele- 
ment in  creation,  that  he  insisted.  That  the  struggle  of 
intelligence  to  realize  in  man  the  supreme  position  which 
it  occupies  ontologically  in  the  structure  of  the  universe 
was  a  moral  struggle,  went  without  saying.  The  teleo- 
logical  metaphysics  of  Aristotle  thus  found  a  natural 
complement  in  the  moral  ideahsm  of  Fichte. 

''From  Hegel  Morris  derived  his  method.  Speaking 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  intellectual  impression  made 
upon  a  former  student,  I  should  say  that  he  was  at  once 
strangely  indifferent  to  and  strangely  preoccupied  with 
the  dialectic  of  Hegel.  Its  purely  technical  aspects 
did  not  interest  him.  But  he  derived  from  it  an  abiding 
sense  of  what  he  was  wont  to  term  the  organic  relation- 
ship of  subject  and  object,  intelligence  and  the  world. 


This  was  the  supreme  instance  of  the  union  of  opposites 
in  a  superior  synthesis,  and,  as  it  were,  vouched  for  the 
reality  of  the  dialectic  principle  all  along  the  line.  As 
I  recall  the  current  of  his  teachings  both  in  the  critical 
parts  of  his  lectures  on  the  history  of  philosophy  and  in 
his  constructive  courses— such  as  his  Real  Logic,— the 
contrast  which  most  frequently  recurred  was  between  a 
unity  which  excluded  differences,  and  a  unity  w^hich 
existed  in  and  through  differences.  When  he  talked, 
as  he  was  wont  to  do,  of  the  mechanical  and  the  organic, 
it  was  this  contrast  which  stood  forth.  It  was  a  con- 
trast between  the  dead  and  the  living,  and  the  contrast 
was  more  moral  and  spiritual  than  physiological,  though 
biology  might  afford  adumbrative  illustrations.  His 
adherence  to  Hegel  (I  feel  quite  sure),  was  because 
Hegel  had  demonstrated  to  him,  in  a  great  variety  of 
fields  of  experience,  the  supreme  reality  of  this  principle 
of  a  living  unity  maintaining  itself  through  the  medium 
of  differences  and  distinctions. 

"Thus  it  was  that  Morris's  students  were  familiarized, 
from  the  standpoint  of  idealism,  with  many  of  the 
objections  which  realists  have  recently  brought  against 
idealism.  I  remember  the  scorn  with  which  he  alluded^ 
to  Bain's  reference  to  the  problem  of  the  existence  of  an 
external  world  as  the  great  problem  of  metaphysics.  To 
him  the  existence  of  the  external  and  physical  world  was  a 
matter  of  course.  The  philosophical  problem  concerned 
its  nature,  not  its  existence.  And  to  have  made  its  nature 
psychical,  to  have  assimilated  it  to  states  of  consciousness, 
would  have  been  to  contradict  the  very  principle  of 
spiritual  unity  which  is  sustained  only  through  differences 
and  oppositions  overcome  in  living  thought.  To  use 
recent  terminology,  epistemologically  he  was  a  realist — 


H' 


J 


y 


318 


THE   LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


319 


close  to  a  common-sense  realist.     The  idealism  of  nature 
is  expressed  in  its  teleological  subordination  to  thought 
and,  above  all,  to  thought  in  action.     Knowledge  was 
but  a  manifestation  of  this  subordination,  morals  being 
an  even  more  adequate  realization.     This  same  spirit 
marked  his  treatment  of  Kant.     The  English  and  Americ- 
an idealism  of  his  day  and  that  immediately  succeeding, 
tended  to  treat  Kant  as  the  source  of  the  idealistic 
faith,  although  a  source  needing  considerable  purification. 
Morris,  on  the  other  hand,  tended  to  treat  him  rather 
as  a  phenomenalist,  an  agnostic,  \and  found  the  root  of 
his  unconquered  subjectivism  in  his  original  'mechanical' 
separation    of    subject    and    object.     Possibly    because 
my  own  thinking  was  so  largely  influenced  by  Professor 
Morris  in  this  regard,  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that 
he  showed  a  truer  historical  instinct  in  his  opposition 
of  Hegel  and  Kant  than  has  that  line  of  commentators 
who  have  treated  Hegel  as  a  Kant  freed  from  incon-  ! 
sistency. 

"Of  Professor  Morris  as  a  teacher  of  undergraduates 
I  have  no  direct  knowledge.  One  thing,  however,  was 
a  matter  of  such  general  repute  and  so  typical  of  his 
personality,  that  I  shall  mention  it.  He  had  to  quiz 
the  undergraduates,  an  ordeal  which  was  spared  him 
when  teaching  university  students.  For,  by  all  reports, 
it  was  more  of  an  ordeal  to  him  than  to  the  students. 
He  faced  the  operation  of  questioning  them  upon  their 
knowledge  of  his  lectures  and  the  books  to  which  he 
had  referred  them  as  a  duty  which  must  be  undertaken. 
But  he  never  seemed  wholly  free  from  embarrassment 
in  its  performance.*  Part,  at  least,  of  the  explanation 
of  his  attitude  was  obvious  enough.     His  kindly  dis- 

*  See  above,  p.  128. 


position  revolted  from  putting  others  at  a  disadvantage. 
He  was  at  the  furthest  remove  from  the  teacher  who 
loves  to  'catch'  his  students.     Failure  on  the  part  of 
others  was  a  painful  experience  to  him;  he  shared  the 
humiliation— oft  times  more,  I  fancy,  than  it  was  shared 
by  the  student.     If  the  student  could  not  answer  his 
question   in   one  form,   he  tried   another.     There  was 
no  legal  rule  against  leading  questions  in  his  class-room. 
"Am  I  wholly  fanciful  in  believing  that  he  was  moved, 
not   only  by  his  remarkable  kindliness,   but  also   by 
another  force  of  which  perhaps  he  was  hardly  conscious? 
I  believe  that  all  the  pedagogic  methods  which  rely 
upon  minute  questioning,  tests,  marks  a  id  promotions, 
were  repugnant  to  him.     If  he  had  expressed  his  senti- 
ment in  the  matter,*  I  think  he  would  have  said  that  to 
submit  intelligence  to  such  treatment  is  foreign  to  its 
nature — that  it  w^as  to  reduce  reason  to  that  mechanical 
plane  which  everywhere  was  his  abhorrence.     Freedom, 
inspiration  drawn  from  itself,  joy  in  its  own  realization, 
were  the  very  breath   of  the  nostrils  of  intelligence. 
To  deal  with  a  student,  even  the  average  undergraduate, 
as  anything  but  a  potential  intelligence  was  an  aversion 
to  him.     As  a  member  of  the  faculty  he  always  stood 
enthusiastically  for   everything   which  promoted   'uni- 
versity' as  distinct  from  'college'  work.     Perhaps  the 
development  of  higher  instruction  in  America  has  been 
sometimes  influenced  by  the  ordinary  external  motives 
which  move  human  nature:  sense  of  prestige,  and  the 
like.     Not  so  with  Professor  Morris.     His  belief  in  the 
methods  of  university  work,  in  intellectual  freedom  and 
stimulation  from  the  inquiry  in  hand,  was  profound  and 
intrinsic.     They  were  to  him  the  only  methods  compat- 

*  He  comes  very  near  doing  so  on  p.  299  above. 


320 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


321 


ible  with  the  dignity  of  intelligence.      I  may  be  wrong 
in  thinking  that  he  was  the  originator  of  the  so-called 
'university'    method    for    undergraduates;    a    method 
which  enabled  them  to  specialize  from  the  Junior  year 
on,  and  which  freed  them  from  the  ordinary  rules  about 
attendance  and  examinations,  treating  them,  in  short, 
as   graduate   students   were   treated.     But   I    am    not 
wrong  in  thinking  of  him  as  among  its  most  ardent  sup- 
porters.    The  scheme  did  not  work  out  as  well  as  he 
hoped.     It    gradually    fell    into    disuse— a    fact    which 
grieved  him.     But  he  never  lost  faith  in  its  essential 
soundness    for   the    elite    of   the    undergraduate    body. 
And  no  one  who  came  profoundly  under  his  influence, 
whether  accepting  his  type  of  technical  philosophy  or 
not,  has  ever  lost  the  sense  that  genuine  intellectual 
activity  means  a  spirit  of  freedom  and  an  inspiration 
drawn  from  within,  not  from  external  and  mechanical 
supports.     His    own    teaching    incarnated    this    ideal. 
The  joy  he  experienced  in  study  and  reflection  was 
evident  and  impressive. 

''Even  after  twenty-five  years,  I  find  it  difl^cult  to 
speak  of  Mr.  Morris  as  a  friend  with  complete  self- 
possession.  He  was  kindness  itself  in  all  human  rela- 
tions. He  was  gentleness  in  person— a  gentleness 
which  never  suggested  weakness.  He  occasionally 
referred  to  the  repressive  effects  of  his  early  Puritan 
education,  and  deplored  its  result  in  discouraging  all 
easy  demonstration  of  the  affections.  Yet,  w^hile 
there  was  reserve  in  his  manner,  there  was  no  constraint. 
Whatever  inner  embarrassments  he  may  once  have 
felt,  he  had  transmuted  them  into  self-possession.  There 
were,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  no  loose  ends  in  his 
bearing,  nothing  excessive  nor  flabby;  there  was  some- 


thing classic  in  his  simplicity  and  self-possession.  He 
never  imposed  himself  upon  others  by  self-assertion, 
but  no  one  would  have  thought  of  taking  advantage 
of  him,  or  of  treating  him  as  negligible  in  any  situation. 
What  he  was  not  informed  about,  topics  about  which 
he  had  not  carefully  thought,  he  left  alone.  When  he 
expressed  himself,  his  bearing  as  well  as  his  words 
commanded  respect. 

"Kindly  time  performs  its  sweet  offices  for  all  human 
relationships.  The  petty  and  the  trivial  fall  away  in 
our  recollections  of  any  sincere  and  forceful  personality. 
Dross  is  purged,  and  the  real  man  stands  out  unalloyed. 
I  have  never  known  anyone  less  in  need  of  this  purging 
oflSce  of  memory  than  Mr.  Morris;  in  his  case  the  ideal- 
ized portrait  and  the  man  of  the  round  of  ordinary  daily 
occupations  fuse  insensibly  and  naturally  into  one." 
The  late  Professor  Hough  and,  again,  Professor 
Dewey,  enable  us  to  approach  more  closely  to  the 
method,  manner  and  importance  of  the  work  performed 
by  Morris  as  a  teacher.     The  former  tells  us:* 

"Professor  Morris  w^as  one  of  the  high  type  of  teachers 
who  draw  the  interest  and  thought  of  their  students  to 
the  work,  rather  than  force  the  work  upon  them.  He 
was  an  inspirer  and  guide,  not  a  master.  But  he  did 
not  inspire  his  hearers  by  eloquence;  he  cared  little  for 
such  effects.  You  were  rather  drawn  to  him  and  to  his 
teaching  by  his  transparent  goodness,  his  perfect  simp- 
licity and  sincerity,  by  the  charming,  almost  fascinating, 
sweetness  of  his  manner,  but  above  all,  I  think,  by  the 
real  substance  of  what  he  said,  and  by  the  illumination, 
the  flood  of  light,  which  his  mind  always  cast  upon  his 
theme.     Thus  if  I  were  asked  to  say  in  a  word  what  it 


*  The  Chronicle,  Vol.  XX.,  pp.  245  f. 
22 


322 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


was  that  drew  you  most  to  him,  I  should  say  it  was  the 
beauty  of  light,  the  attractive  force  and  satisfaction  of 
light,  as  conveyed  in  his  thought,  and  as  manifested  in 
his  person  and  presence. 

'Tor    distinctively    university    teaching,     Professor 
Morris  possessed  the  highest  qualifications.     Not  only 
was  his  own  culture  of  the  broadest  and  most  truly 
liberal  sort,  but  all  his  work  was  conceived  and  done  in 
a   university  spirit.     Education  in  the  real   and   true 
sense  of  self-unfolding,  he  could  conceive  of  as  normally 
taking  place  only  in  a  true  university.     In  a  true  develop- 
ment the  motive  and  the  inspiration  come  from  within 
and  are  not  imposed  from  without.     Such  a  development 
a  umversity  invites  and  fosters.     Here  the  instruction 
IS  but  the  opportunity;  it  may  kindle  the  spark,  but  the 
flame  must  burn  from  within.     A  true  development, 
too,  must  be  many-sided,  and  still  harmonious  and  or- 
gamc;  it  implies  what  we  call  culture,  and  at  the  same 
time  that  intelligence  which  springs  only  from  a  due 
appreciation  of  the  proper  relations  of  things.     This,  a- 
gain,  the  university,  affording  with  its  many  departments 
instruction  in  every  branch  of  knowledge,  and  yet  alwavs 
pursmng  it  in  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  whole— the 
attainment    of   true    intelligence-is    alone    adequately 
mted  to  give.     True  education  finds  its  best  opportunity 
and  greatest  encouragement  in  a  true  university.     No 
one  could  have  been  more  awake  to  the  priceless  value 
of  such   a   broad,    balanced,    intelligent   knowledge   of 
one's  self  and  of  life,  than  was  Professor  Morris.     And 
so  strenuous  and  constant  was  his  effort,  not  only  to 
conduct  his  own  work  in  this  spirit  and  with  this  aim 
but  also  to  inculcate  this  idea  in  others,  and  to  permeate 
the  whole  work  of  our  University  with  it,  that  his  value 


GEORGE  SYLVESTER  MORRIS 


323 


and  services  for  distinctly  university  teaching  were 
inestimable.  No  one  ever  listened  to  his  instruction, 
who  has  not  felt  the  broadening,  enlightening  influence 
of  this  idea,  and  been  permanently  elevated  and  ex- 
panded by  it. 

"Of  the  content  of  Professor  Morris's  teaching,  his 
philosophical  views,  it  is  beyond  the  purpose  of  these 
few  paragraphs  to  speak,  even  in  the  most  general  terms. 
But  it  may  be  permitted  to  allude  very  briefly  to  the 
important  place  he  occupies  in  the  history  of  philosophic- 
al instruction  in  this  country.      He  was  one  of  the 
earliest,  and  perhaps  has  done  more  than  any  other,  to 
make  current  among  us  a  measurably  comprehensive 
and  adequate  knowledge  of  the  History  of  Philosophy, 
at  first  by  the  translation  of  Ueberweg's  standard  work 
on  that  subject,  further  by  making  his  own  historical 
lectures  an  established  part  of  his  philosophical  instruc- 
tion, and  later  by  editing  a  series  of  critical  expositions 
of  the  masterpieces  of  German  philosophy,  to  which  he 
himself  contributed  two  volumes.    The  last  two  decades 
have  witnessed  an  almost  complete  change  in  the  content 
and  method  of  philosophical  instruction  in  this  country. 
Instead    of    the    circumscribed,    traditional    doctrines, 
which  were  held  and  taught  largely  in  the  service  of 
theology,  nearly  every  branch  of  philosophy  is  now  pur- 
sued in  a  historical  spirit,  and  treated  on  its  own  account. 
And  I  suppose  it  is  true  today  that  no  one  has  borne  a 
more  visible  hand  in  this  transformation  than  Professor 
Morris.'' 

Mr.  Dewey  is  no  less  definite.* 

"There  is,  indeed,  nothing  to  be  said  of  him  as  a 
class-room  instructor  that  is  not  to  be  said  of  him  as  a 

*  The  Palladium,  Vol.  XXXI.,  pp.  117  f. 


I 


324 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


man.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  foreign  to  his 
character  than  to  assume  in  any  respect  an  attitude  or 
quality  in  the  class-room  different  from  that  which 
marked  him  elsewhere.  There  was  the  same  sincerity, 
the  same  simplicity,  the  same  force  of  enthusiasm  in 
him  in  one  place  as  in  another.  Xo  ^officialism,^  such 
as  sometimes  gathers  about  the  work  of  teaching,  ever 
touched  him.  He  was  everywhere  simply  and  only  a 
man. 

''But  Professor  Morris  had  unusual  gifts  as  a  philo- 
sophic   instructor.     He    was,    among    other    things,    a 
commentator  of  the  first  order.     That  is,  he  had  the 
selective  eye  which  made  at  once  for  the  heart  of  an 
author  under  discussion;  he  had  the  pregnant  phrase 
that  lays  bare  this  heart  to  the  eye  of  the  student.     He 
had  the  gift  of  inspiring  in  his  pupils  the  same  disinter- 
ested   devotion    to    truth    that    marked    himself.     He 
conveyed   in   large  measure   what,   in  his  essay   upon 
University  Education,   he  himself  calls   *the  power  to 
detect  and  the  will  to  condemn  all  essential  shams  and 
falsehoods.'     Scholarship  never  lost  itself  in  pedantry; 
culture    never    masqueraded    as    mere    intellectualism, 
without    ethical    inspiration    and    backing.     He    was 
especially  successsful  in  arousing  pupils  with  any  par- 
ticular aptitude  for  philosophy  to  advanced  and  inde- 
pendent work.     The  spirit  of  his  work  was  that  which 
he  declared  should  be  the  spirit  of  all  truly  University 
work— a  free  teacher  face  to  face  with  a  free  student. 
He  once  defined  ideahsm  as  faith  in  the  human  spirit; 
this  faith  he  had,  and  his  voice  and  his  influence  were 
always  for  broadening  the  scope  and  methods  of  college 
work,   without  in  any  way  relaxing  the   solidity  and 
thoroughness  of  mental  discipline. 


GEORGE   SYLVESTER   MORRIS 


325 


"Of  the  place  and  function  of  philosophy  in  University 
training,   he  had   a   high   conception— not   because  he 
would  in  any  way  magnify  his  own  office  at  the  expense 
of  others,  but  because  he  saw  in  philosophy  the  organic 
bond  of  all  the  special  sciences,  '  the  coordination  of  all 
knowledge.'  ...  So    far    was    he    from    desiring    any 
exclusive  treatment  of  philosophy,  that  he  writes  that 
'her   praises   will    never   be   rightfully   and    effectively 
sung  until  they  are  sung  by  others  than  adepts.'     I  can 
find  no  better  expression  of  the  spirit  in  which  Professor 
Morris  himself  taught  philosophy  than  is  voiced  in  one 
of  his  own  earlier  writings.     He  speaks   there  of   'the 
noblest  common-sense  which  seeks  reform,  not  simply 
protest  and  the  demand  for  change,  but  by  fitly  feeding 
the  fountains   of  intelligence,   through   which   alone  a 
true  and  authentic  reform  can  be  maintained.'     To  feed 
the  fountains  of  intelligence  was  precisely,  it  seems  to 
me,  the  work  of  Professor  Morris  in  philosophy.     While 
we  cannot  estimate  the  loss  to  thought  in  his  sudden 
death,  we  cannot  be  sufficiently  grateful  that  there  are 
so  many  scattered  over  the  whole  land  who  have  felt 
the  quickening  touch  of  his  divine  love  of  truth,  and 
who   have   felt   the   'fountains   of   intelligence'   within 
their  own  breast,  called  into  life  and  energy  by  the  truth 
as  he  bore  witness  to  it." 

These  illuminating  tributes  and  appreciations  serve 
to  convey  some  idea  of  the  rare  quality  of  the  man,  and 
of  the  important  place  to  which  he  had  won  so  nobly. 

They  also  intimate  that,  while  his  early  death  was  a 
staggering  blow  to  his  friends  and  a  grievous  loss  to  the 
University  of  Michigan,  it  was,  even  more,  in  Professor 
Dewey's  words,  '  a  loss  no  less  deep  to  the  philosophical 
world  at  large.     He  was  in  the  prime  of  his  work.     His 


326 


THE  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF 


feeling  as  expressed  in  one  of  those  rare  moments  when 
he  broke  through  his  accustomed  reserve,  was  that  in 
past  work  he  had  been  serving  an  apprenticeship  for 
what  he  hoped  to  do.' 

We  have  our  external  memorials  of  him:  the  reading 
and  seminary  rooms,  furnished  artistically  by  Mrs. 
Morris,  enriched  by  her,  for  practical  uses,  with  her 
husband's  library;  the  fund  set  aside  by  her  to  aid  prom- 
ising students  in  philosophy  and  to  make  additions  to 
our  resources  in  books.  Most  fittingly,  too,  in  the  altera- 
tions of  1893,  which  rendered  St.  Andrew's  Church, 
Ann  Arbor,  a  place  where  men  can  worship  the  Lord 
in  the  beauty  of  holiness,  Morris  was  not  forgotten. 

"Within  the  chancel  the  changes  are  quite  marked.  The 
altar  has  been  enlarged  and  elevated  to  its  proper  position.  An 
altar  piece  has  been  pro\ided,  consisting  of  an  'alto  relievo'  of 
the  Last  Supper,  after  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  This  relievo,  which 
is  seven  feet  long,  and  of  proportionate  height,  is  finished  in 
soft  old  ivory  tints,  which  bring  out  the  deUcately  modelled 
features  to  perfection.  It  forms  a  recessed  panel  in  a  plain 
battlemented  reredos,  which  rises  to  the  sill  of  the  large  east 
window.  This  whole  work,  including  the  reredos  and  relievo, 
is  a  memorial  to  the  distinguished  metaphysician  and  man  of 
God,  the  late  Professor  George  S.  Morris."* 

But,  after  all,  "the  humane  sweetness  of  the  man 
which,  nevertheless,  did  not  prevent  him  from  holding 
positive  opinions  and  exhibiting  great  courage  in  their 
expression,"  as  Dr.  Angell  says,  has  its  best  memorial 
in  the  Department  of  Philosophy,  whose  pathw^v  to 
real  influence  Morris  was  the  first  to  blaze.  We  follow 
him  in  the  difficult  attempt  to  be  worthy  of  his  memory, 
ever  remembering  that,  above  all  else,  he  was  iivbpbs 
Twv  t6t€  dplarov  Kal  aXXcos  (t>povLii(jiTaTov  /cat  5t/catordroi;. 

*  A  History  of  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  Arthur 
Lyon  Cross,  pp.  130-1. 


I 


INDEX 


Academy,  Kimball  Union,  39  f., 
44,  48,  51,  54,  58,  60,  67,  78, 
180  f. 

Academy,  Royalton,  62  f. 

Adam,  J.,  31. 

Adams,  C.  K.,  123,  127,  170  f. 

Adamson,  R.,  VIII.,  167,  174,  254, 
261. 

Alexander,  S.,  285. 

Andover  Theological  Seminary,  79. 

Angell,  J.  B.,  V.,  VIII.,  124,  125, 
127,  128,  131,  134,  137,  138,  141, 
147,  154,  157,  163,  164,  326. 

Angell,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  128,  134. 

Aristotle,  111,  113,  117,  130,  135, 
144,  154,  167,  207,  221  f.,  235, 
240,  242,  259.  264,  292,  313,  315, 
316. 

Asti6,  F.,  111. 

Astronomy,  51,  60,  64  f.,  198  f. 

Athens,  31  f. 

Auburn  Theological  Seminary,  67, 
69,  78  f. 

Bacon,  244,  250. 

Bain,  A.,  309,  317. 

Baltimore,  Md.,  142  f. 

Barnes,  A.,  89. 

Baxter,  R.,  18. 

Bebel,  A.,  11. 

Beckley,  H.,  35,  37. 

Beecher,  L.,  89. 

Benedict,  G.  G.,  74  f. 

Berkeley,  252,  304. 

Berlin,  112  f.,  169,  217  f. 

Bethel,  Vt.,  8. 

Beyschlag,  W.,  110. 

Birney,  J.  G.,  36. 

Black,  J.  S.,  292,  293. 

Blunt,  E.  L.,  30. 

Boardman,  S.  W.,  78  f. 

Booth,  H.  M.,  92. 

Bosanquet,  B.,  107,  273. 

Bowdoin  College,  131  f. 

Bradley,  F.  H.,  145,  167,  254,  270, 

285. 
Bradstreet,  S.,  17. 


327 


Bratuschek,  E.,  223. 
Brewster,  W.,  17. 
Brigade,  Second  Vermont,  74  f. 
Britannica,   Encyclopaedia,   XIV., 

144. 
British     Hegelians,     217,     252  f., 

284  f.,  287,  291,  318. 
British  Museum  Catalogue,  XV. 
British  Philosophy,  251  f.,  265  f., 

309  f. 
British  Science,  246  f. 
British  Thought  and  Thinkers,  141, 

144,  243  f.,  256  f.,  308  f.,  315. 
Brooks,  W.  K.,  152. 
Brown,  E.  E.,  302,  306  f. 
Browning,  254,  273  f. 
Biichner,  L.,  226,  231. 
Bunyan,  3,  18,  58. 
Burke,  98. 
Burt,  B.  C,  XV.,  146,  152,  155. 

173,  284. 
Butler,  S.,  16. 

Caird,  E.,  VIII..  52,  167,  170,  174, 

188,  244,  253  f..  274.  277.  284  f., 

297. 
Caird,  J.,  VIII.,  52,  165,  170,  254  f. 
California,  University  of,  134. 
Calvin,  191. 
Calvinism,  189  f.,  207.  210  f..  216, 

245,  257,  281,  287. 
Cariyle,  4,  92,  155,  161,  246,  254. 
Campbell,  A.,  141,  155  f.,  239. 
Catalogue,  British  Museum,  XV. 
Channing,  C,  23. 
Chapin,  L.  D.,  114. 
Chrystal,  G.,  293  f. 
City  College,  New  York.  134. 
Civil  War,  the.  68  f. 
Clark.  W.,  174  f. 
Clay.  H..  8. 
Cleveland,  G.,  11. 
Clough,  A.  H.,  87. 
Cocker,  B.  F..  XIV.,  135  f..  141. 

146,  156,  159,  160. 
Coleridge,  107,  215,  254. 
College,  Bowdoin,  131  f. 


i 


328 


INDEX 


Dartmouth,  15,  36,  43,  45  f., 

51,  54  f.,  71,  76,  79  f.,  88, 

90,    181,    183.    185  f.,    193, 

197  f.,  206,  297. 

New  York  City,  134. 

Conciliation,   School   of,   99,    111, 

195,  210  f. 
Cone,  Mrs.  K.  M.,  VIII.,  9,  11,  12, 
21,  35  f.,  39,  40,  48  f.,  100,  105. 
118  f. 

Congregationalism,  24,  29,  35,  42, 

56,  86,  206,  289. 
Conscience,  the  New  England,  2, 

55,  69.  86  f.,  189.  206,  216,  223, 

227,  262,  264,  280. 
Converse,  C.  B.,  75. 
Cornell  Universitj',  170  f. 
Cotton,  J.,  17. 
Cox,  G.,  62,  68,  69,  71  f. 
Criticism,  Historical,  224  f. 
Croce,  B.,  240. 
Cromwell,  17. 
Cross,  A.  L.,  326. 
Curtis,  E.  H.,  88,  96  f. 
Culture    of    New    England,    1  f., 

18  f.,  34  f.,  113,  177  f. 

Dartmouth  College,  15,  36,  43, 
45  f.,  51,  54  f.,  71,  76,  79  f.,  88, 
90,  181,  183,  185  f.,  197  f.,  206, 
297. 
Dartmouth,  N.  H.,  10. 
Darwin,  C.  R.,  161,  207,  227  f., 
247  f. 

Darwin,  G.  H.,  11. 

Davis,  R.  C.  180  f.      - 

Declaration  of  Independence,  19 

De  Laguna,  T..  287. 

Demmon,  I.  N..  127. 

Democritus,  221. 

Dennison,  Alice,  63. 

Dennison,  C.  S.,  63,  159. 

Dennison,  J.  A.,  104. 

Dennison,  Susan,  104  f.,  115  f. 

Descartes,  136,  265,  ^ 

Dewey,  J.,  121,  146,  15t,  16(^,  302, 
304,  308  f.,  313  f.,  321,  323  f. 

D'Ooge,  M.  L.,  90. 

Drama,  the,  72  f. 

Dresden,  110. 

Droysen,  J.  G.,  283. 

Dudley,  T.,  17.  19. 


Edison,  T.,  11. 


Edwards,  J.,  239. 

Eliot,  J.,  45. 

Ely  Lectures,  145.  255,  261,  270  f. 

Encyclopaedia    Britannica,    XIV., 

144. 
Erdmann,  J.  E.,  168  f. 
Eucken,  R.,  118. 
Everett,  C.  C,  VIII. 
Evolution,  204. 

Fairbairn,  A.  M.,  167,  170. 
Family,  influence  of  the,  25  f. 
Farrar,  F.  W.,  157. 
Ferrier,  J.  F.,  215,  252. 
Feuerbach,  L.,  221,  226. 
Fichte,  I.  H.,  218,  233,  257. 
Fichte,  J.  G.,  144,  168,  281,  316. 
Final    Cause,    Morris    on,    233  f., 

241  f. 
Fischer,  K.,  169,  220. 
Flint,  R.,  147  f.,  165,  170. 
Fortlage,  C,  220. 
Foster,  F.  H.,  189,  209. 
Fraternity,  Psi  Upsilon,  51,   197. 
Frieze,  H.  S.,  V.,  122  f.,  133  f.,  141, 

153,  159,  160. 

Galton,  F.,  1. 
Garfield,  J.  A.,  68. 
Garibaldi,  205. 
Garrison,  W.  L.,  36. 
Gayley,  C.  M.,  165  f. 
Geology,  64,  198,  232. 
^  German    Philosophical    Classics, 

Morris  edits,  144,  173,  261  f. 
Gilman,  D.  C,  138  f.,  148  f. 
Goethe,  276. 
Goodhue,  H.,  81. 
Graham,  H.  G.,  239. 
Graves,  A.  A.  (see  Mrs.  Wilson). 
Green,  T.  H.,  VIII.,  11,  165,  167, 

194,  227.  253  f.,  274,  277,  284  f. 
Grote,  J.,  252. 

Haldane,  Lord,  165,  253,  291. 
Hall,  G.  S.,  XV.,   142,  145,  150, 

152  f.,  258. 
Halle,  109,  217  f. 
Hamilton,  113,  207. 
Hamman,  224. 
Hampden,  17. 
Harris,  W.  T.,  VIII.,  XIV. 
Hartmann,  E.  v.,  226,  235  f. 
Haselrig,  17. 


INDEX 


329 


Haven,  E.  O.,  V.,f.,   123,f.,   135, 

156 
Haynes,  J.,  17. 
Hedge,  F.  H.,  212. 
Heine,  232. 

Hegel,  XV.,  107,  113,  117,  136, 
144,  145,  153,  163,  168  f.,  173, 
192,  226,  227,  235,  238,  239, 
240,  253,  255,  258,  264,  269,  278, 
282  f.,  288,  292,  296,  304,  306, 
310,  315,  316  f. 
Hegelians,     British,    217,    252  f., 

284  f.,  287,  291,318. 
Helmholtz,  219. 
Henkel,  H.,  248. 
Herder,  22. 
Hinsdale,  B.  A.,  V. 
Historical  Criticism,  224  f. 
Hitchcock,  R.  D.,  90. 
Hoar,  Senator,  3. 
Hodgson,    S.    H.,    108,    111.    180, 

214  f. 
Hoffding,  H.,  257,  258. 
Holbrook,  Governor,  74. 
Home,   the   New   England,    11  f., 

34  f. 
Hooker,  T.,  17. 
Hough,   W.   S.,    160,    168  f.,    174, 

297,  321  f. 
Howison,  G.  H.,  157,  160,  162. 
Humboldt,  A.  v.,  219. 
Hume,  96,  128,  195,  215,  227,  259, 

264,  265,  268,  290,  304. 
Hutchinson,  S.,  75. 
Hutton  W.,  90  f.,  97  f. 
Hyslop,  J.  H.,  213. 

Ide,  H.  C,  80  f. 

James,  W.,  11,  286. 

Joel,  L.,  112,  132,  141,  170,  174. 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  XIV., 

49,  138  f.,  144  f.,  162. 
Journal,  Private,  of  Morris,  183  f., 

199  f.,  201. 
Jowett,  B.,  187  f.,  201. 

Kant,  XIII.,  17,  92,  96,  120,  135, 
142,  144,  145,  151,  156,  157,  162, 
163,  168,  215,  223,  227,  232,  233, 
239,  240,  243,  251,  255,  258, 
259  f.,  263  f.,  288,  304,  310,  316, 
318. 

Kant's   Critique   of  Pure   Reason, 


Critical  Exposition  of,  by  Morris, 

144,  263  f. 
Keats,  58. 
Kimball,  D.,  182  f. 
Kimball  Union  Academy,  39  f.,  44, 

48,51,54,58,  60,67,  78,  180  f. 
Konigsberg,  University  of,  121. 

Lang,  A.,  11 

Lange,  F.  A.,  107,  227. 

Larrowe,  M.  D.,  VII.,  101  f.,  116. 

Lasson,  A.,  169. 

Laud,  19. 

Lausanne,  111  f.,  170,  173,  174- 

Leibniz,  219. 

Lewes,  G.  H.,  163,  207. 

Liebig,  219. 

Lincoln,  73. 

Locke,  19,  105,  239,  244,  259,  295. 

'Loisette,  Alphonse,'  102  f. 

Lord,  Nathan,  15  f.,  46  f.,  50,  185. 

Long,  C,  49  f. 

Lotze,  H.,  218,  262  f. 

Lutheran  Theology,  190  f. 

Lux  Mundi,  277. 

McCosh,  J.,  145,  196. 

Mackenzie,  J.  S.,  285. 

Mackintosh,  R.,  293. 

Man,  Morris  as  a,  296  f. 

Mansel,  H.  L.,  174,  207. 

Marsh,  J.,  107,  196. 

Marquand,  A.,  140. 

Mazzini,  246. 

Memory  Systems,  103. 

Merriam,  S.  A..  46. 

Merrill,  C.  H.,  81. 

Merritt.  A.  K.,  103. 

Merz,  J.  T.,  130,  247. 

Michigan    Philosophical    Society, 

156,  164  f. 

Michigan,    University    of,    V.    f., 

XV.,  90,  119,  122  f.,  139  f.,  147, 

153,  159  f.,  173,  176,  283,  325. 

Mill,  J.  S.,  128,  130,  163,  207,  309, 

315  f. 
Milton,  18,  105. 
Mind,  167,  261,  296,  297. 
Miracles,  222. 
Moore,  E.  C,  271. 
Morgan,  J.  P.,  11. 
Morris,  Ethel,  VII.,  97,  143. 
Morris,  Ephraim,  13  f. 
Morris,  George  Sculthorpe,  XV. 


330 


INDEX 


Morris,  George  Sylvester,  — 
Ancestry  of,  4  f.,  27. 
Birth  of,  10. 
and    the    Church,    42  f.,    69, 

96  f.,  134. 
in  the  Civil  War,  71  f. 
his  British  Thought  and  Think- 
ers, 141,  144,  243  f.,  256  f., 
308  f.,  315. 
at  Dartmouth  College,  45  f. 
Death  of,  175  f. 
Education  of,  34f.,  88f.,  109f. 
his  Ely  Lectures,  145,  255,  261, 

270  f. 
Europe,  visit  to,  165  f. 
on  Final  Cause,  233  f.,  241  f. 
his  German  Philosophical  Clas- 
sics, 144,  173,  261  f. 
in  Germany  and  Switzerland, 

108  f. 
his  HegeVs  Philosophy  of  the 
State  and  of  History,  282  f . 
at  Johns  Hopkins  University, 

138  f.,  146  f. 
at  Kimball  Union  Academy, 

39  f. 
his   Kant's   Critique   of  Pure 
Reason,  Critical  Exposition 
of,  144,  263  f. 
Man,  as  a,  296  f. 
Marriage  of,  143. 
Memorials  to,  159,  326. 
and  music,  38  f.,  58  f.,  79,  109, 
112,  125,  132  f.,  153,  168, 
175. 
on  Philosophy  and  ite  Specific 

Problems,  259  f . 
on  preaching,  93  f.,  115  f. 
Private    Journal    of,     183  f., 

199  f.,  201. 
read    widely,    59,    65  f.,    92, 

207  f.,  224. 
at  Royalton  Academy,  62  f. 
on  Shakespeare,  72  f. 
Teacher,  as  a,  302  f.,  313  f., 

321  f. 
Thesis  for  M.  A.,  82  f. 
Thinker,  as  a,  253  f. 
on    Unconscious    Intelligence, 

235  f.,  241  f. 
Ueberweg,  translation  of,  120 

f.,  132  f. 
on  University  Education,  180, 
298  f.,  324. 


at  the  University  of  Michigan, 

176. 
and    the    Victoria    Institute, 

London,  229  f.,  241  f. 
Verses  by,  53  f.,  85,  92  f. 
Writings  of,  early,  43  f.,  52  f., 
63  f.,     82  f.,     93  f.,     197  f., 
202  f. 
Writings,  published,  XI.,  f. 
Morris,    Mrs.    G.   S.,    VII.,    103, 

143. 
Morris,    Kate    (see    Mrs.    K.    M. 

Cone). 
Morris,  Lucy,  38  f.,  57,  61,  77  f., 

100,  118. 
Morris,  Roger  S.,  143,  175. 
Morris,  Susanna  Weston,  9,  37  f., 

50,  57,  76  f.,  113. 
Morris,  Sylvester,  4,  8,  11,  12  f., 

21,  35  f.,  100  f.,  119,  173. 
Morris,  Tyler  S.,  5. 
Morrison,  H.  C,  39  f. 
Muirhead,  J.  H.,  174. 

Natural  Theology,  199  f. 

New    England    Conscience,    the,* 

2,  55,  69,  86  f.,   189,  206,  216, 

223,  227,  262,  264,  280. 
New    England,    Culture    of,    1  f., 

18  f.,  34  f.,  113,  177  f. 
New   England   Home,    the,    11  f., 

34  f. 
New  England  Sermons,  29. 
New    England    Theology,    189  f., 

209  f.,  250  f. 

'New     School'     Presbyterianism, 

89  f. 
New  York,  88  f.,  119  f. 
New  York,  City  College  of,  134. 
Neo-Fichteans,  219,  223,  229,  233, 

257. 
Neo-Kantianism,  152,  168  f.,  218, 

220,  252  f. 
Newton,  227,  247,  265. 
Nichol,  J.,  286. 
Nietzsche,  F.,  225  f. 
Norwich,  Vt.,  10,  14,  34,  42,  62. 

78,  101,  164. 
Norwich  University,  35  f . 

Olney,  E.,  V. 

'Original  Research,'  149  f. 

Osborn,  H.  F.,  161. 

Oxford  University,  167  f.,  285. 


INDEX 


331 


Paley,  W.,  96,  199  f. 
Partridge,  Alden,  33,  40. 
Partridge,  Lewis,  35  f . 
Patterson,  J.  W.,  60. 
Pfleiderer,     O.,     169,     170,     209, 

211. 
Philosophical     Classics,     German, 

144,  173,  261  f. 
Philosophy,  British,  251  f.,  265  f., 

309  f. 
Philosophy  and  Christianity   (Ely 

Lectures),       145,       255,      261, 

270  f. 
Philosophical    Society,    Michigan, 

156,  164  f. 
Philosophy,  specific  problems  of, 

Morris  on,  259  f. 
Pierce,  C.  S.,  142,  145,  148. 
Pilgrim,  1  f.,  9. 
Plato,  28,  31,  135,  137,  154,  167, 

197,  200,  221  f.,  239,  240,  259, 
264,  310. 

Pownall,  Governor,  105. 
Prentiss,  G.  L.,  89,  107. 
Presbyterian,  *  New  School,'  89  f . 
Private  Journal  of  Morris,  183  f., 

199  f.,  201. 
Psi  Upsilon  Fraternity,  51,  197. 
Puritans,  1  f. 
Puritanism,  17  f.,  37  f.,  85  f.,  100  f., 

105  f.,    189  f.,    216,    223,    245, 

277,  280,  285,  288,  320. 
Putnam,  J.  N.,  49,  51. 

Rebec,  G.,  158  f. 
Redington,  E.  O.,  297. 
Regiment,  16th  Vermont,  74  f. 
Reid,  T.,  195. 
Renan,  31,  207,  225. 
'Research,  Original,'  149  f. 
Richards,  C.  S.,  41  f.,  60,  180  f. 
Riley,  W.,  27,  184,  195,  196,  204. 

238,  295,  310 
Ritchie,  D.  G.,  249. 
Ritschl,  A.,  209. 
Ritschlianism,  168,  193. 
Robertson,  G.  C,  167,  168. 
Romanes,  G.  J.,  249. 
Rome,  114. 
Rousseau,  19,  289. 
Royalton,  Vt.,  61,  79,   104,   115, 

198,  201,  202  f. 
Royalton  Academy,  62  f. 
Royce,  J.,  139,  145. 


St.  Andrew's  Church,  Ann  Arbor, 

134,  159,  326. 
Sage  Foundation,  173. 
Santayana,  G.,  295. 
Schaff,  P.,  Ill,  120,  133,  192,  195. 
Schelling,  144, 168,  219  f.,  226,  237. 
Schleiden  and  Schwann,  219. 
Schleiermacher,    117,    195,   210  f., 

221,  232. 
School   of   Conciliation,   99,    111. 

195,  210  f. 
School,  Tubingen,  225. 
Schopenhauer,  226. 
Schwarz,  C,  219,  225. 
Schweitzer,  A.,  210. 
Science,  British,  246  f. 
Scottish  School,  195  f.,  209,  239. 
Second  Vermont  Brigade,  74  f. 
Seligman,  J.,  119,  153. 
Seth,  A.,  291. 
Shakespeare,  72  f.,  93,  245. 
Shattuck     Observatory,     51,     60, 

201  f. 
Shedd,  W\  G.  T.,  89,  90,  107. 
Shepard,  T.,  17. 
Sidgwick,  H.,  11. 
Sihler,  E.  G.,  139. 
Slavery,  13  f.,  46  f.,  68  f. 
Smith,  B.  P.,  46,  47. 
Smith,    H.    B.,    88,    90  f.,    96  f., 

110  f.,  120,  131  f.,  153,  195,  196, 

206,  208,  209  f.,  218,  222. 
Smith,  W.  R.,  293  f. 
Socrates,  31,  239,  259. 
South  Wilbraham,  Mass.,  6  f. 
Spencer,  H.,   128,   163,  207,   240, 

244,  246,  248,  259,  263,  309. 
Spinoza,  XIII.,  136,  144,  237,  259, 

265,  289. 
Stebbins,  H.  H.,  89  f. 
Sterrett,  J.  M.,  296  f. 
Stirling,  J.  H.,  VIII.,  107,  200,  254. 
Stone,  M.  S.,  62. 
Stoughton,  General,  74. 
Strauss,   D.   F.,   107,  210,  212  f., 

220  f. 
Swinburne,  11. 
Symonds,  H.,    174 

Taine,  H.,  229. 

Tappan,  H.  P.,  V.,  114  f.,  123  f., 

134  f.,  156,  160. 
Taylor,  A.  E.,  285. 
Taylor,  F.  M.,  146. 


332 


INDEX 


Teacher,  Morris  as  a,  302  f.,  313  f., 
321  f. 

Temperance  Reform,   13,   15,  36, 

40,  76  f. 
Ten  Brook,  A.,  V.  f.,  114,  122  f., 

135. 
Theological    Seminary,    Andover, 

79. 
Theological  Seminary,  Auburn,  67, 

69,  78  f. 
Theological  Seminary,  Union, 

XIV.,  79,  88  f.,  100,  106  f.,  145, 

153,    175,    206  f.,    209  f.,    240, 

270. 
Theology,  Lutheran,  190  f. 
Theology,  Natural,  199  f. 
Theology,    New   England,    189  f., 

209  f.,  250  f. 
Theology,  Reformed,   190  f.,   198. 
Tholuck,  F.  A.,  99,  110,  195,  210. 
Thompson,  Z,,  35. 
Trendelenburg,  A.,  XII.,  112,  113, 

117  f.,  130,  144,  154,  177,  195, 

206,   208,   210  f.,   217  f.,   228  f., 

233  f.,  240,  274,  292,  310. 
Tschaikowsky,  11. 
Tubingen  School,  225. 
Tucker,  W.  J.,  44  f..  48  f.,  52,  67, 

177. 
Tyler,  M.  C,  24,  29,  127,  159,  165, 

172. 

Ueberweg,  F.,  XI.  f.,  120  f.,  132  f., 

153,  177,  222,  228,  235. 
Ulrici,   H.,    99,    109  f.,    195,    208, 

210  f.,  217  f.,  228  f.,  233,  243. 
Unconscious    Intelligence,    Morris 

on,  235  f.,  241  f. 
Union    Theological    Seminary, 

XIV.,    79,    88  f.,     100,     106  f., 

145,    153,    175,    206  f.,    209  f., 

240,  270. 
Unitarianism,  23. 
Universalism,  35. 
University  of  California,  134. 
University,  Cornell,  170  f. 
University  Education,   180,  298  f., 

324. 


University,  Johns  Hopkins,  XIV., 
49,  138  f.,  144  f.,  162. 

University  of  Konigsberg,  121. 

University  of  Michigan,  V.  f.,  XV., 
90,  119,  122  f.,  139  f.,  147,  153, 
159  f.,  173,  176,  283,  325. 

University,  Norwich,  Vt.,  35  f. 

University  of  Oxford,  167  f.,  285. 

University  of  Wisconsin,  134. 

Uphues,  K.,  168. 

Vaihinger,  H.,  168,  227. 
Van  Tyne,  C.  H.,  98. 
Vatke,  W.,  107. 
Veazey,  W.  G.,  71,  75. 
Vermont  newspapers,  XI. 
Vermont  Second  Brigade,  74  f. 
Vermont  Sixteenth  Regiment,  74  f. 
Victoria  Institute,  London,  229  f. 
Victoria  Institute  Addresses,  241  f. 
Vienna,  114. 
Virgil,  84. 
Volkelt,  J.,  235. 
Voltaire,  128,  130. 

Walker,  E.  C,  122. 

Walker,  W.,  14. 

Wallace,  W.,  VIII.,  167,  168,  170, 

174,  187  f.,  254,  278. 
Walter,  E.  L.,  140,  298. 
Watson,  J.,  v.,  127,  254. 
Webster, A.  G.,  154. 
Webster,  Daniel,  8. 
Weston,     Susanna     (see     Morris, 

Susanna  Weston). 
White,  A.  D.,  123,  125,  171. 
Whitefield,  23. 
Williams,  M.  H.,  98. 
Wilson,  Mrs.  H.  B.,  320  f. 
Windelband,  W.,  226. 
Wisconsin,  University  of,  134. 
Wisdom,  28. 
Wise,  J.,  19. 
Wundt,  W.,  155,  168. 

Zeller,  E.,  Ill,  169,  218. 
Zola,  11. 
Zwingli,  190  f. 


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